Five indices to rank countries well being¶

In May 2022, Reporters without Borders published their annual results comparing the level of press freedom enjoyed by journalists and media in 180 countries and territories. Several news agencies in my country (Greece) criticized its placement (pos. 108), a substantial drop from the 2021 70th position. I gathered data from 4 more indices created by non-governmental organizations assessing the condition of political rights and civil liberties around the world to compare the results.

So the 5 indices presented below are:

  • The World Press Freedom Index by Reporters without Borders
  • The Freedom in the World annual report by the Freedom House
  • The Rule of Law Index by the World Justice Project
  • The Corruption Perceptions Index by the Transparency International movement
  • The Human Development Index by UN Human Development Report Office

By comparing these indicators, I will try to find similar patterns for each country, which compose a more general picture about the quality of living in them. After the initial presentation of each index I will compare Human development index with each of the 4 others looking for correlations. In the final part of the report, I will create a single composite index using information from all five indices by applying Principal Component Analysis.

World Press Freedom Index by RSF¶

Who published it?

The World Press Freedom Index is published annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international non-profit and non-governmental organization founded in 1985 in Montpellier (France) by four journalists. RSF's stated mission is safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It assists journalists at risk, training them in digital and physical security and campaigning to raise public awareness of abuse against journalists securing their safety and liberty. It has consultive status with the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the International Organization of Francophonie. The organization's main page is https://rsf.org/en.

Scoring Methodology

The index's ranking is based, on a score ranging from 0 to 100, assigned to each country or territory, with 100 representing the best possible score (the highest possible level of press freedom). 2022 index ranks 180 countries worldwide. It is calculated based on two components:

  • a quantitative tally of abuses against journalists and media outlets in connection with their work
  • a qualitative analysis of the situation in each country or territory based on the responses of press freedom specialists (including journalists, researchers, academics, and human rights defenders) to an RSF questionnaire available in 23 languages.

Each country or territory's score is evaluated using five contextual indicators: political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context, and reporter's safety. You can read the World Press Freedom Index presentation along with its analyses and methodology.

Data Preparation¶

I used a python script to scrape the World Press Freedom Index from their site because the 2022 csv was not right. I am going to use pandas to create the index tables, geopandas to plot the choropleths, seaborn and matplotlib for all the other graphs.

<class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'>
RangeIndex: 180 entries, 0 to 179
Data columns (total 8 columns):
 #   Column        Non-Null Count  Dtype  
---  ------        --------------  -----  
 0   Pos.          180 non-null    int64  
 1   Countries     180 non-null    object 
 2   Global score  180 non-null    float64
 3   Score pol.    180 non-null    float64
 4   Score eco.    180 non-null    float64
 5   Score legis.  180 non-null    float64
 6   Score soc.    180 non-null    float64
 7   Score secu.   180 non-null    float64
dtypes: float64(6), int64(1), object(1)
memory usage: 11.4+ KB
Pos. Countries Global score Score pol. Score eco. Score legis. Score soc. Score secu.
0 1 Norway 92.65 94.89 90.38 92.23 93.71 92.03
1 2 Denmark 90.27 94.34 83.67 89.18 91.17 92.97
2 3 Sweden 88.84 91.96 87.66 90.27 90.18 84.14
3 4 Estonia 88.83 91.11 81.97 87.87 90.00 93.20
4 5 Finland 88.42 90.40 82.03 86.64 90.77 92.26
Similar country names:  20
{'Bosnia-Herzegovina': ['Bosnia and Herzegovina', 'The Gambia'],
 'Brunei': ['Brunei Darussalam', 'Federated States of Micronesia'],
 'Cabo Verde': ['Cape Verde', 'Macao'],
 'Congo-Brazzaville': ['Democratic Republic of the Congo'],
 'Democratic Republic of Congo': ['Democratic Republic of the Congo',
                                  'Republic of Congo'],
 'Eswatini': ['Swaziland', 'Saint Kitts and Nevis'],
 'Gambia': ['The Gambia', 'Guam'],
 'Guinea Bissau': ['Guinea-Bissau', 'Nauru'],
 'Haïti': ['Haiti', 'Democratic Republic of the Congo'],
 'Ivory Coast': ["Côte d'Ivoire", 'Morocco'],
 'Laos': ['Barbados', 'Lao PDR'],
 'Maldives': ['Saint Vincent and the Grenadines'],
 'Mauritius': ['Nauru', 'Haiti'],
 'Morocco / Western Sahara': ['Morocco', 'Western Sahara'],
 'North Korea': ['Republic of Korea', 'Northern Mariana Islands'],
 'North Macedonia': ['Macedonia', 'New Caledonia'],
 'OECS': ['Federated States of Micronesia'],
 'Russia': ['Russian Federation', 'Brunei Darussalam'],
 'Seychelles': [],
 'South Korea': ['Republic of Korea', 'Dem. Rep. Korea']}
Countries with no match:  4
{'Maldives': ['Saint Vincent and the Grenadines'],
 'Mauritius': ['Nauru', 'Saint-Martin'],
 'OECS': ['Federated States of Micronesia'],
 'Seychelles': []}
/tmp/ipykernel_10868/1783930385.py:10: UserWarning: Boolean Series key will be reindexed to match DataFrame index.
  temp = press_index_prev[press_index.Country == 'Morocco'].copy()
(181, 3)

Tables and Visualizations¶

Worldwide Results¶

2022 World Press Freedom Index. Data Source: Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Pos. Country Overall Score Political Economic Legislation Sociocultural Safety
1 Norway 92.65 94.89 90.38 92.23 93.71 92.03
2 Denmark 90.27 94.34 83.67 89.18 91.17 92.97
3 Sweden 88.84 91.96 87.66 90.27 90.18 84.14
4 Estonia 88.83 91.11 81.97 87.87 90.00 93.20
5 Finland 88.42 90.40 82.03 86.64 90.77 92.26
6 Ireland 88.30 89.24 79.08 85.09 92.50 95.58
7 Portugal 87.07 91.86 77.41 84.21 93.14 88.73
8 Costa Rica 85.92 81.62 72.96 87.72 92.50 94.78
9 Lithuania 84.14 87.01 72.16 84.46 89.71 87.37
10 Liechtenstein 84.03 80.36 68.78 84.74 89.80 96.46
11 New Zealand 83.54 90.15 75.26 74.78 89.75 87.76
12 Jamaica 83.35 74.85 71.94 82.46 95.00 92.52
13 Seychelles 83.33 80.45 69.13 85.31 90.25 91.50
14 Switzerland 82.72 90.00 68.37 80.99 88.33 85.92
15 Iceland 82.69 86.21 65.56 82.68 87.50 91.50
16 Germany 82.04 87.03 80.07 87.08 89.47 66.58
17 Timor-Leste 81.89 85.45 68.71 85.96 75.67 93.65
18 Namibia 81.84 72.97 69.80 82.98 91.60 91.84
19 Canada 81.74 82.27 71.17 80.26 92.00 82.99
20 Czech Republic 80.54 79.66 61.56 84.21 88.44 88.81
21 Luxembourg 79.81 82.94 66.33 72.93 88.71 88.14
22 Latvia 79.17 78.96 64.58 80.89 87.36 84.06
23 Belgium 78.86 75.03 71.22 79.30 87.40 81.35
24 United Kingdom 78.71 80.57 72.75 76.63 84.29 79.33
25 Trinidad and Tobago 78.68 73.94 67.86 74.56 84.50 92.52
26 France 78.53 79.85 67.86 86.51 89.38 69.05
27 Slovakia 78.37 71.44 67.98 82.02 86.38 84.01
28 Netherlands 77.93 86.30 82.86 87.28 86.10 47.09
29 Argentina 77.28 76.36 51.53 90.68 85.75 82.06
30 Dominican Republic 76.90 71.52 62.24 85.96 92.00 72.79
31 Austria 76.74 77.82 61.43 78.95 81.20 84.29
32 Spain 76.71 72.73 63.38 82.16 81.89 83.40
33 Bhutan 76.46 78.79 62.24 70.39 77.00 93.88
34 Guyana 76.41 70.06 67.76 75.61 81.40 87.21
35 South Africa 75.56 75.96 62.59 84.36 82.50 72.39
36 Cape Verde 75.37 72.55 62.76 77.98 75.40 88.16
37 Côte d'Ivoire 74.46 74.89 58.45 75.94 81.43 81.60
38 Taiwan 74.08 74.78 51.88 79.01 77.69 87.02
39 Australia 73.77 77.17 63.44 64.18 84.17 79.88
40 Moldova 73.47 70.15 47.83 83.00 85.88 80.48
41 Burkina Faso 73.12 78.99 67.69 75.58 87.83 55.52
42 United States 72.74 72.99 59.33 77.32 81.43 72.63
43 South Korea 72.11 71.15 55.31 72.81 79.80 81.50
44 Uruguay 72.03 70.30 49.32 83.63 72.33 84.58
45 Samoa 71.39 61.82 56.12 64.91 85.00 89.12
46 Sierra Leone 71.03 73.71 50.38 78.40 77.50 75.14
47 Belize 70.67 70.00 52.04 63.60 82.00 85.71
48 Croatia 70.42 68.26 50.46 79.19 76.09 78.08
49 Tonga 69.74 69.70 53.06 66.67 69.50 89.80
50 The Gambia 69.25 71.11 51.36 67.69 81.33 74.74
51 Armenia 68.97 66.26 44.44 77.88 76.33 79.91
52 Suriname 68.95 67.88 55.10 62.28 84.00 75.51
53 Andorra 68.79 68.12 50.41 69.12 68.80 87.48
54 Slovenia 68.54 59.32 47.70 79.11 79.94 76.61
55 OECS 68.49 62.91 48.37 68.25 79.80 83.13
56 Romania 68.46 66.77 46.77 76.46 81.67 70.63
57 North Macedonia 68.44 66.16 43.71 81.29 73.17 77.85
58 Italy 68.16 65.89 47.52 73.93 80.00 73.48
59 Niger 67.80 62.30 46.73 71.75 76.50 81.69
60 Ghana 67.43 66.61 47.22 81.42 79.64 62.25
61 Kosovo 67.00 64.34 45.24 80.85 74.33 70.26
62 Papua New Guinea 66.66 62.42 45.24 66.08 81.33 78.23
63 Montenegro 66.54 62.51 47.67 77.19 71.00 74.33
64 Mauritius 66.07 55.58 47.81 64.16 80.29 82.50
65 Cyprus 65.97 61.21 42.09 74.56 65.75 86.25
66 Poland 65.64 50.95 57.41 68.95 82.53 68.33
67 Bosnia and Herzegovina 65.64 61.56 40.23 79.57 71.86 74.95
68 Ecuador 64.61 60.10 55.44 67.98 69.50 70.03
69 Kenya 64.59 62.42 46.33 72.28 78.00 63.92
70 Haiti 64.55 59.60 50.34 72.22 80.67 59.91
71 Japan 64.37 54.66 53.70 66.23 67.06 80.19
72 Kyrgyzstan 64.25 59.90 48.64 68.86 69.00 74.83
73 Senegal 63.07 59.31 42.13 66.67 72.43 74.84
74 Panama 62.78 54.24 47.45 64.04 74.00 74.15
75 Liberia 62.77 55.50 32.80 74.69 82.57 68.30
76 Nepal 62.67 59.80 40.14 66.08 77.33 69.99
77 Peru 61.75 66.97 41.84 70.61 63.00 66.35
78 Malta 61.55 46.82 41.33 67.98 74.75 76.87
79 Serbia 61.51 47.47 34.92 79.92 74.22 71.03
80 Malawi 61.40 55.76 38.44 78.07 67.67 67.08
81 Northern Cyprus 61.08 56.48 38.78 69.82 60.20 80.14
82 Chile 60.61 65.03 42.86 67.63 72.40 55.15
83 Comoros 60.16 56.36 50.26 59.98 75.63 58.56
84 Guinea 59.82 59.26 47.05 71.15 70.67 50.96
85 Hungary 59.80 47.07 32.31 67.25 67.33 85.03
86 Israel 59.62 65.15 55.10 53.51 77.75 46.61
87 Maldives 59.55 62.27 38.27 67.11 55.00 75.12
88 Lesotho 59.39 57.37 40.14 57.31 74.00 68.11
89 Georgia 59.30 52.42 46.43 80.79 75.50 41.34
90 Mongolia 59.17 55.48 36.18 60.37 69.55 74.27
91 Bulgaria 59.12 54.95 30.10 68.71 66.83 75.02
92 Guinea-Bissau 58.79 51.15 50.82 68.42 62.40 61.18
93 Republic of Congo 58.64 58.06 48.57 64.21 62.60 59.76
94 Tunisia 58.49 61.82 41.84 67.19 70.20 51.42
95 Botswana 58.49 56.97 37.24 56.36 69.75 72.11
96 Paraguay 58.36 54.24 31.12 75.44 65.00 65.99
97 Mauritania 58.10 55.15 35.13 64.29 64.29 71.67
98 Madagascar 58.02 52.58 35.08 64.47 64.50 73.47
99 Angola 57.17 52.83 35.03 61.11 73.00 63.87
100 Togo 57.17 57.52 41.73 61.93 69.50 55.15
101 Central African Republic 56.96 51.21 41.07 62.06 68.25 62.19
102 Fiji 56.91 44.85 39.80 58.33 64.00 77.55
103 Albania 56.41 50.55 29.39 68.77 66.60 66.75
104 Chad 56.18 55.88 43.27 60.35 63.20 58.21
105 Gabon 56.00 48.38 39.46 56.14 65.50 70.52
106 Ukraine 55.76 61.21 42.86 79.45 76.43 18.84
107 Burundi 55.74 50.03 44.67 59.55 52.78 71.66
108 Greece 55.52 60.50 38.13 69.54 65.36 44.10
109 Zambia 55.40 52.35 37.76 58.33 64.00 64.55
110 Brazil 55.36 51.62 37.59 69.74 70.00 47.86
111 Mali 54.48 35.15 42.60 74.34 78.50 41.81
112 El Salvador 54.09 42.94 39.07 63.22 62.86 62.37
113 Malaysia 51.55 46.52 42.60 40.13 56.00 72.48
114 Ethiopia 50.53 50.65 45.77 63.66 57.29 35.29
115 Thailand 50.15 58.99 45.24 47.37 53.67 45.50
116 Mozambique 49.89 46.06 40.31 61.62 47.25 54.21
117 Indonesia 49.27 45.91 41.33 55.70 66.00 37.42
118 Cameroon 49.10 48.05 35.71 56.89 67.57 37.25
119 Qatar 49.03 59.70 46.94 43.86 42.50 52.17
120 Jordan 48.66 40.00 32.65 41.23 66.00 63.40
121 Benin 48.39 47.73 28.19 57.46 55.50 53.10
122 Kazakhstan 48.28 43.52 29.80 51.93 52.30 63.85
123 Tanzania 48.28 43.88 32.65 45.09 59.20 60.56
124 Guatemala 47.94 46.06 33.67 68.86 59.00 32.12
125 Democratic Republic of the Congo 47.66 51.33 41.43 60.88 60.30 24.34
126 Bolivia 47.58 44.55 33.67 58.77 45.00 55.89
127 Mexico 47.57 58.18 43.37 65.79 59.50 11.02
128 South Sudan 47.06 40.48 36.73 52.11 50.60 55.37
129 Nigeria 46.79 45.15 36.39 53.80 69.83 28.75
130 Lebanon 46.58 50.91 38.27 50.22 60.50 33.02
131 Swaziland 46.42 41.31 35.03 43.86 50.50 61.40
132 Uganda 46.35 44.70 36.99 60.96 56.00 33.09
133 Uzbekistan 45.74 44.75 35.71 50.88 53.33 44.03
134 Algeria 45.53 41.21 32.40 54.17 55.88 44.02
135 Western Sahara 45.42 51.67 28.83 55.81 56.00 34.82
135 Morocco 45.42 51.67 28.83 55.81 56.00 34.82
136 Rwanda 45.18 42.12 31.89 57.89 55.25 38.76
137 Zimbabwe 44.94 40.30 32.40 54.17 54.50 43.34
138 United Arab Emirates 44.46 45.45 36.73 32.02 50.50 57.59
139 Singapore 44.23 39.09 29.21 34.21 49.25 69.39
140 Somalia 44.01 51.03 41.22 47.72 61.80 18.27
141 Equatorial Guinea 43.96 42.73 24.49 44.30 44.25 64.04
142 Cambodia 43.48 42.42 27.96 49.65 62.40 34.96
143 Libya 43.16 54.42 34.90 44.91 45.00 36.58
144 Brunei Darussalam 42.53 40.61 30.61 28.51 34.00 78.91
145 Colombia 42.43 44.70 32.27 60.42 50.38 24.40
146 Sri Lanka 42.13 40.91 27.04 53.07 48.25 41.37
147 Philippines 41.84 44.44 23.13 54.97 61.83 24.83
148 Hong Kong 41.64 40.50 35.90 42.58 57.45 31.78
149 Turkey 41.25 38.38 27.55 52.92 55.00 32.37
150 India 41.00 40.76 30.36 57.02 56.25 20.61
151 Sudan 40.96 47.05 29.97 41.45 51.00 35.35
152 Tajikistan 40.26 33.79 29.85 48.68 46.00 42.96
153 Belarus 39.62 32.93 48.75 37.23 60.33 18.85
154 Azerbaijan 39.40 37.66 23.76 48.25 58.86 28.48
155 Russia 38.82 36.36 34.84 44.61 51.29 27.00
156 Afghanistan 38.27 44.65 43.88 42.54 43.33 16.96
157 Pakistan 37.99 39.57 31.92 53.26 47.43 17.75
158 Kuwait 37.87 32.73 19.39 36.84 27.00 73.41
159 Venezuela 37.78 33.70 31.73 44.74 47.50 31.22
160 Nicaragua 37.09 37.45 38.78 31.75 49.80 27.68
161 Lao PDR 36.64 36.06 20.92 31.58 44.00 50.64
162 Bangladesh 36.63 42.12 32.48 44.15 48.50 15.88
163 Oman 35.99 32.73 23.98 18.42 45.00 59.82
164 Djibouti 35.75 32.73 16.12 37.72 37.60 54.56
165 Honduras 34.61 33.33 31.63 36.84 31.00 40.22
166 Saudi Arabia 33.71 37.27 33.67 22.37 36.50 38.75
167 Bahrain 30.97 35.15 21.43 28.95 39.67 29.65
168 Egypt 30.23 30.91 23.47 34.87 44.25 17.64
169 Yemen 29.14 33.03 27.55 38.60 35.00 11.54
170 Palestine 28.98 35.45 15.82 36.40 36.50 20.74
171 Syria 28.94 33.51 27.62 33.58 36.57 13.39
172 Iraq 28.59 34.14 20.07 29.82 40.67 18.27
173 Cuba 27.32 27.27 39.80 15.79 27.50 26.24
174 Vietnam 26.11 32.32 18.71 27.49 34.67 17.37
175 China 25.17 27.45 26.02 23.25 33.30 15.84
176 Myanmar 25.03 40.40 29.25 20.18 30.67 4.63
177 Turkmenistan 25.01 25.00 11.73 29.61 23.00 35.69
178 Iran 23.22 30.71 21.32 26.71 23.78 13.61
179 Eritrea 19.62 22.22 19.73 25.15 19.67 11.36
180 North Korea 13.92 22.42 0.00 22.81 12.00 12.38

European Results¶

Bellow there is a list of 44 European Countries based on United Nations statistics to filter the indices.

2022 World Press Freedom Index (European Countries). Data Source: Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Pos. Country Overall Score Political Economic Legislation Sociocultural Safety
1 Norway 92.65 94.89 90.38 92.23 93.71 92.03
2 Denmark 90.27 94.34 83.67 89.18 91.17 92.97
3 Sweden 88.84 91.96 87.66 90.27 90.18 84.14
4 Estonia 88.83 91.11 81.97 87.87 90.00 93.20
5 Finland 88.42 90.40 82.03 86.64 90.77 92.26
6 Ireland 88.30 89.24 79.08 85.09 92.50 95.58
7 Portugal 87.07 91.86 77.41 84.21 93.14 88.73
8 Lithuania 84.14 87.01 72.16 84.46 89.71 87.37
9 Liechtenstein 84.03 80.36 68.78 84.74 89.80 96.46
10 Switzerland 82.72 90.00 68.37 80.99 88.33 85.92
11 Iceland 82.69 86.21 65.56 82.68 87.50 91.50
12 Germany 82.04 87.03 80.07 87.08 89.47 66.58
13 Czech Republic 80.54 79.66 61.56 84.21 88.44 88.81
14 Luxembourg 79.81 82.94 66.33 72.93 88.71 88.14
15 Latvia 79.17 78.96 64.58 80.89 87.36 84.06
16 Belgium 78.86 75.03 71.22 79.30 87.40 81.35
17 United Kingdom 78.71 80.57 72.75 76.63 84.29 79.33
18 France 78.53 79.85 67.86 86.51 89.38 69.05
19 Slovakia 78.37 71.44 67.98 82.02 86.38 84.01
20 Netherlands 77.93 86.30 82.86 87.28 86.10 47.09
21 Austria 76.74 77.82 61.43 78.95 81.20 84.29
22 Spain 76.71 72.73 63.38 82.16 81.89 83.40
23 Moldova 73.47 70.15 47.83 83.00 85.88 80.48
24 Croatia 70.42 68.26 50.46 79.19 76.09 78.08
25 Andorra 68.79 68.12 50.41 69.12 68.80 87.48
26 Slovenia 68.54 59.32 47.70 79.11 79.94 76.61
27 Romania 68.46 66.77 46.77 76.46 81.67 70.63
28 North Macedonia 68.44 66.16 43.71 81.29 73.17 77.85
29 Italy 68.16 65.89 47.52 73.93 80.00 73.48
30 Montenegro 66.54 62.51 47.67 77.19 71.00 74.33
31 Poland 65.64 50.95 57.41 68.95 82.53 68.33
32 Bosnia and Herzegovina 65.64 61.56 40.23 79.57 71.86 74.95
33 Malta 61.55 46.82 41.33 67.98 74.75 76.87
34 Serbia 61.51 47.47 34.92 79.92 74.22 71.03
35 Hungary 59.80 47.07 32.31 67.25 67.33 85.03
36 Bulgaria 59.12 54.95 30.10 68.71 66.83 75.02
37 Albania 56.41 50.55 29.39 68.77 66.60 66.75
38 Ukraine 55.76 61.21 42.86 79.45 76.43 18.84
39 Greece 55.52 60.50 38.13 69.54 65.36 44.10
40 Belarus 39.62 32.93 48.75 37.23 60.33 18.85
41 Russia 38.82 36.36 34.84 44.61 51.29 27.00

Aggregations¶

Notes¶

According to the 2022 edition of the World Press Freedom Index, the five leading countries are all located in northern Europe, four Nordic countries and Estonia. Most of the low-ranking countries are located in Asia and north Africa. Notable exceptions are South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Georgia and Israel in Asia and Tunisia in north Africa. On the other hand, 5 american countries standing out for their low score, Cuba, Ondura, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Colombia.

Greece, after the drop of 38 places compared to 2021, is only third to last in Europe, with a worse score than all the Balkan countries except for Russia and Belarus. Even in the 2021 ranking, Greece was only in 30th place out of 41 countries, worse than most countries in the European Union.

Based on RSF's report, press freedom in Greece suffered serious setbacks in 2021 and 2022, with journalists regularly prevented from covering issues from migration to Covid-19. Furthermore is noted the assassination of veteran crime reporter Giorgos Karaivaz in April 2021 remains unsolved.

Freedom in the World Report by Freedom House¶

Who published it?

The Freedom in the World report has been published since 1973 by the Freedom House, assessing the condition of political rights and civil liberties around the world. The Freedom House is a non-profit organization founded in Washington, D.C. in October 1941 by the U.S. government. It contacts research and advocates for democracy, political freedom, and human rights, though it has been criticized of being biased towards U.S. interests because of its funding. I You can find more information about the Freedom House and its action on its website: https://freedomhouse.org/about-us

Score Methodology

Freedom in the World report produces annual scores representing the levels of political rights and civil liberties for 195 countries and 15 territories. External analysts access each country using a combination of on-the-ground research, consultations with local contracts, and information from news articles, non-governmental organizations, governments, and other sources. Expert advisers, regional specialists, and Freedom House staff presents the results based on the analysts' conclusions. It is widely reported in the media and used as a source of research to measure democracy by policymakers, journalists, academics, and activists.

A country or territory is awarded from 0 to 4 points for each of 10 political rights indicators and 15 civil liberties indicators, which take the form of questions. A score of 4 represents the greatest degree of freedom. Political rights questions are grouped into four subcategories:

  • Electoral Process (3 questions)
  • Political Pluralism and Participation (4 questions)
  • Functioning of Government (3 questions)

Civil liberties questions are grouped into four subcategories:

  • Freedom of Expression and Belief (4 questions)
  • Associational and Organizational Rights (3 questions)
  • Rule of Law (4 questions)
  • Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights (4 questions).

The political rights section also contains an additional discretionary question addressing forced demographic change. For the discretionary question, a score of 1 to 4 may be subtracted, as applicable (the worse the situation, the more points may be subtracted). The highest overall score that can be awarded is 100, consisting of 40 points for political rights and 60 points for civil liberties.

For more details about Freedom in the World Research methodology, you can read their report here. Also, here you can download the dataset I will use below.

Data Preparation¶

<class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'>
RangeIndex: 3549 entries, 0 to 3548
Data columns (total 13 columns):
 #   Column             Non-Null Count  Dtype 
---  ------             --------------  ----- 
 0   Country/Territory  3549 non-null   object
 1   Edition            3549 non-null   int64 
 2   A                  3549 non-null   int64 
 3   B                  3549 non-null   int64 
 4   C                  3549 non-null   int64 
 5   Add Q              3549 non-null   int64 
 6   PR                 3549 non-null   int64 
 7   D                  3549 non-null   int64 
 8   E                  3549 non-null   int64 
 9   F                  3549 non-null   int64 
 10  G                  3549 non-null   int64 
 11  CL                 3549 non-null   int64 
 12  Total              3549 non-null   int64 
dtypes: int64(12), object(1)
memory usage: 360.6+ KB
Country/Territory Edition A B C Add Q PR D E F G CL Total
0 Abkhazia 2022 5 8 4 0 17 8 6 4 5 23 40
1 Afghanistan 2022 0 0 1 0 1 4 3 0 2 9 10
2 Albania 2022 9 12 7 0 28 13 8 9 9 39 67
3 Algeria 2022 3 4 3 0 10 6 3 6 7 22 32
4 Andorra 2022 12 15 11 0 38 14 11 15 15 55 93
Similar country names:  27
{'Abkhazia': ['Aruba'],
 'Brunei': ['Brunei Darussalam', 'Federated States of Micronesia'],
 'Cabo Verde': ['Cape Verde', 'Macao'],
 'Congo (Brazzaville)': ['Democratic Republic of the Congo'],
 'Congo (Kinshasa)': ['Democratic Republic of the Congo', 'Cook Islands'],
 "Cote d'Ivoire": ["Côte d'Ivoire", 'Cape Verde'],
 'Crimea': ['Ashmore and Cartier Islands'],
 'Eastern Donbas': ['New Caledonia'],
 'Eswatini': ['Palestine', 'Swaziland'],
 'Gaza Strip': [],
 'Indian Kashmir': ['Indian Ocean Territories'],
 'Laos': ['Lao PDR'],
 'Maldives': ['Saint Vincent and the Grenadines'],
 'Mauritius': ['Saint-Martin'],
 'Micronesia': ['Federated States of Micronesia', 'French Polynesia'],
 'Nagorno-Karabakh': ['Aruba'],
 'Pakistani Kashmir': [],
 'Sao Tome and Principe': ['São Tomé and Principe',
                           'Saint Vincent and the Grenadines'],
 'Seychelles': [],
 'South Ossetia': [],
 'St. Kitts and Nevis': ['Saint Kitts and Nevis',
                         'Saint Vincent and the Grenadines'],
 'St. Lucia': ['Saint Lucia', 'Siachen Glacier'],
 'St. Vincent and the Grenadines': ['Saint Vincent and the Grenadines',
                                    'São Tomé and Principe'],
 'Tibet': ['Palestine', 'Saint Kitts and Nevis'],
 'Transnistria': [],
 'Tuvalu': [],
 'West Bank': []}

Tables and Visualizations¶

Worldwide Results¶

2022 Freedom in the World Index. Data Source: Freedom House
Pos. Country Total Score Electoral Process Political Pluralism Functioning of Goverment Discretionary Question Political Rights Subtotal Freedom of Expression and Belief Associational and Organizational Rights Rule of Law Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights Civil Liberties Subtotal
1 Finland 100 12 16 12 0 40 16 12 16 16 60
2 Norway 100 12 16 12 0 40 16 12 16 16 60
3 Sweden 100 12 16 12 0 40 16 12 16 16 60
4 New Zealand 99 12 16 12 0 40 16 12 15 16 59
5 Canada 98 12 16 12 0 40 15 12 15 16 58
6 Denmark 97 12 16 12 0 40 16 12 14 15 57
7 Ireland 97 12 16 11 0 39 16 12 14 16 58
8 Luxembourg 97 12 16 10 0 38 16 12 15 16 59
9 Netherlands 97 12 16 11 0 39 16 12 15 15 58
10 Uruguay 97 12 16 12 0 40 16 12 14 15 57
11 Belgium 96 12 16 11 0 39 15 12 15 15 57
12 Japan 96 12 16 12 0 40 15 12 15 14 56
13 Switzerland 96 12 15 12 0 39 15 12 15 15 57
14 Australia 95 12 15 12 0 39 15 12 15 14 56
15 Barbados 95 12 16 10 0 38 16 12 14 15 57
16 Portugal 95 12 16 11 0 39 16 11 14 15 56
17 Chile 94 12 15 11 0 38 16 12 13 15 56
18 Estonia 94 12 15 11 0 38 16 12 14 14 56
19 Germany 94 12 15 12 0 39 14 12 14 15 55
20 Iceland 94 12 15 10 0 37 15 12 15 15 57
21 Taiwan 94 12 15 11 0 38 16 11 15 14 56
22 Andorra 93 12 15 11 0 38 14 11 15 15 55
23 Austria 93 12 15 10 0 37 14 12 15 15 56
24 Cyprus 93 12 15 11 0 38 15 11 15 14 55
25 Dominica 93 11 16 10 0 37 15 11 15 15 56
26 Kiribati 93 12 15 10 0 37 16 12 15 13 56
27 Marshall Islands 93 12 16 10 0 38 16 11 15 13 55
28 San Marino 93 12 15 11 0 38 15 12 13 15 55
29 Tuvalu 93 12 15 10 0 37 16 12 15 13 56
30 United Kingdom 93 12 16 11 0 39 14 12 13 15 54
31 Cape Verde 92 12 16 10 0 38 16 11 14 13 54
32 Federated States of Micronesia 92 12 15 10 0 37 16 11 15 13 55
33 Palau 92 12 15 10 0 37 16 11 15 13 55
34 Saint Lucia 92 11 16 11 0 38 15 12 13 14 54
35 Bahamas 91 12 16 10 0 38 15 12 13 13 53
36 Costa Rica 91 12 15 11 0 38 16 11 13 13 53
37 Czech Republic 91 12 15 9 0 36 14 12 14 15 55
38 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 91 11 15 10 0 36 15 12 14 14 55
39 Italy 90 12 14 10 0 36 15 12 13 14 54
40 Liechtenstein 90 10 13 10 0 33 16 12 14 15 57
41 Slovakia 90 12 15 10 0 37 15 12 12 14 53
42 Slovenia 90 12 16 10 0 38 14 10 14 14 52
43 Spain 90 12 16 9 0 37 14 11 13 15 53
44 France 89 12 15 11 0 38 14 10 13 14 51
45 Grenada 89 11 16 10 0 37 15 11 13 13 52
46 Lithuania 89 12 16 10 0 38 15 11 11 14 51
47 Malta 89 12 14 9 0 35 14 12 14 14 54
48 Saint Kitts and Nevis 89 10 15 10 0 35 16 12 13 13 54
49 Latvia 88 12 15 10 0 37 14 12 11 14 51
50 Belize 87 12 14 8 0 34 16 11 13 13 53
51 Greece 87 12 15 10 0 37 14 11 11 14 50
52 Mauritius 86 11 15 10 0 36 14 11 13 12 50
53 Antigua and Barbuda 85 12 13 8 0 33 15 10 14 13 52
54 Croatia 85 12 14 10 0 36 13 12 11 13 49
55 Argentina 84 11 16 8 0 35 15 11 10 13 49
56 Monaco 84 8 10 9 0 27 16 12 14 15 57
57 Mongolia 84 11 16 9 0 36 14 11 11 12 48
58 São Tomé and Principe 84 11 15 9 0 35 15 11 12 11 49
59 Panama 83 12 15 8 0 35 15 11 10 12 48
60 Romania 83 12 14 9 0 35 13 11 12 12 48
61 Samoa 83 9 14 9 0 32 14 11 14 12 51
62 South Korea 83 11 13 9 0 33 14 11 12 13 50
63 United States 83 10 13 9 0 32 14 11 11 15 51
64 Trinidad and Tobago 82 11 13 9 0 33 16 11 9 13 49
65 Vanuatu 82 10 15 8 0 33 14 11 13 11 49
66 Poland 81 10 16 8 0 34 13 10 10 14 47
67 Ghana 80 12 13 10 0 35 14 10 10 11 45
68 Jamaica 80 12 13 9 0 34 15 11 9 11 46
69 Bulgaria 79 11 14 8 0 33 13 11 10 12 46
70 Seychelles 79 12 13 9 0 34 14 9 11 11 45
71 Solomon Islands 79 9 14 7 0 30 16 10 11 12 49
72 South Africa 79 12 13 8 0 33 15 12 9 10 46
73 Suriname 79 11 14 9 0 34 15 11 9 10 45
74 Tonga 79 9 14 7 0 30 14 10 12 13 49
75 Namibia 77 11 12 8 0 31 14 11 11 10 46
76 Nauru 77 12 14 8 0 34 13 9 9 12 43
77 Northern Cyprus 77 9 12 6 0 27 15 11 13 11 50
78 Israel 76 12 13 9 0 34 12 8 11 11 42
79 Brazil 73 10 14 7 0 31 13 9 8 12 42
80 Guyana 73 9 13 8 0 30 15 11 8 9 43
81 Botswana 72 10 10 8 0 28 12 10 11 11 44
82 Peru 72 10 13 7 0 30 15 8 8 11 42
83 Timor-Leste 72 11 14 8 0 33 14 8 8 9 39
84 Ecuador 71 11 13 7 0 31 13 9 8 10 40
85 Hungary 69 9 11 6 0 26 10 10 10 13 43
86 Dominican Republic 68 9 11 7 0 27 14 10 8 9 41
87 Senegal 68 9 12 8 0 29 13 7 8 11 39
88 Albania 67 9 12 7 0 28 13 8 9 9 39
89 Montenegro 67 9 11 6 0 26 12 9 9 11 41
90 North Macedonia 67 9 12 7 0 28 12 8 9 10 39
91 Bolivia 66 10 10 7 0 27 14 9 6 10 39
92 India 66 12 12 9 0 33 9 7 8 9 33
93 Malawi 66 9 12 8 0 29 13 8 9 7 37
94 Paraguay 65 10 12 6 0 28 12 8 7 10 37
95 Sierra Leone 65 10 11 7 0 28 12 6 9 10 37
96 Colombia 64 10 11 8 0 29 12 5 9 9 35
97 Tunisia 64 9 13 4 0 26 12 7 9 10 38
98 Lesotho 63 10 11 6 0 27 12 7 8 9 36
99 Moldova 62 10 12 5 0 27 12 8 6 9 35
100 Papua New Guinea 62 7 13 3 0 23 14 10 7 8 39
101 Serbia 62 7 9 5 0 21 12 8 9 12 41
102 Bhutan 61 10 12 8 1 29 9 5 9 9 32
103 Madagascar 61 9 11 7 0 27 11 8 7 8 34
104 Ukraine 61 9 12 5 0 26 11 8 6 10 35
105 Liberia 60 8 12 7 0 27 11 7 6 9 33
106 Mexico 60 9 13 5 0 27 12 7 5 9 33
107 Benin 59 3 9 5 0 17 14 8 10 10 42
108 El Salvador 59 10 12 4 0 26 11 8 6 8 33
109 Indonesia 59 11 13 6 0 30 9 6 5 9 29
110 Fiji 58 7 9 7 0 23 11 7 7 10 35
111 Georgia 58 7 8 7 0 22 9 7 8 12 36
112 Nepal 57 10 10 5 0 25 10 7 7 8 32
113 Kosovo 56 9 11 5 0 25 9 8 6 8 31
114 Armenia 55 7 10 6 0 23 9 8 6 9 32
115 Philippines 55 9 10 6 0 25 11 6 3 10 30
116 Sri Lanka 55 9 10 5 1 23 8 9 7 8 32
117 Bosnia and Herzegovina 53 6 9 4 0 19 10 7 7 10 34
118 Burkina Faso 53 7 10 6 0 23 11 7 5 7 30
119 Guatemala 51 7 10 4 0 21 11 6 5 8 30
120 Niger 51 8 9 6 0 23 10 6 6 6 28
121 Zambia 51 6 11 4 0 21 8 6 8 8 30
122 Malaysia 50 6 9 5 0 20 8 6 7 9 30
123 Côte d'Ivoire 49 6 9 4 0 19 10 7 6 7 30
124 Somaliland 49 7 10 5 0 22 8 6 7 6 27
125 Kenya 48 6 8 5 0 19 10 7 5 7 29
126 Honduras 47 8 9 4 0 21 9 5 4 8 26
127 Singapore 47 4 8 7 0 19 7 3 7 11 28
128 The Gambia 47 8 9 4 0 21 8 6 6 6 26
129 Guinea-Bissau 43 7 8 2 0 17 10 6 5 5 26
130 Hong Kong 43 0 5 5 0 10 8 3 9 13 33
131 Mozambique 43 3 7 4 0 14 9 6 6 8 29
132 Nigeria 43 6 9 5 0 20 9 6 4 4 23
133 Comoros 42 5 7 4 0 16 8 6 6 6 26
134 Lebanon 42 5 7 1 0 13 10 8 5 6 29
135 Togo 42 4 6 5 0 15 9 5 6 7 27
136 Abkhazia 40 5 8 4 0 17 8 6 4 5 23
137 Maldives 40 7 8 4 0 19 3 5 6 7 21
138 Bangladesh 39 4 7 4 0 15 6 5 4 9 24
139 Kuwait 37 3 7 4 0 14 6 4 7 6 23
140 Morocco 37 5 5 3 0 13 7 5 5 7 24
141 Pakistan 37 5 6 4 0 15 6 6 4 6 22
142 Nagorno-Karabakh 36 7 7 3 1 16 7 6 3 4 20
143 Mauritania 35 6 4 4 0 14 9 4 4 4 21
144 Guinea 34 1 7 2 0 10 10 4 4 6 24
145 Tanzania 34 3 5 4 0 12 7 4 4 7 22
146 Uganda 34 3 5 3 0 11 8 4 4 7 23
147 Haiti 33 3 5 3 0 11 9 4 4 5 22
148 Jordan 33 2 6 3 0 11 7 1 7 7 22
149 Algeria 32 3 4 3 0 10 6 3 6 7 22
150 Mali 32 1 5 2 0 8 10 6 4 4 24
151 Turkey 32 5 8 3 0 16 5 3 3 5 16
152 Angola 30 3 5 2 0 10 7 5 5 3 20
153 Iraq 29 8 7 2 1 16 4 4 1 4 13
154 Pakistani Kashmir 29 4 4 3 2 9 6 4 4 6 20
155 Thailand 29 1 2 2 0 5 6 3 5 10 24
156 Brunei Darussalam 28 0 3 4 0 7 6 3 5 7 21
157 Zimbabwe 28 3 5 3 0 11 7 3 2 5 17
158 Indian Kashmir 27 2 3 2 0 7 6 3 4 7 20
159 Kyrgyzstan 27 2 3 0 1 4 10 4 2 7 23
160 Qatar 25 2 2 3 0 7 7 2 5 4 18
161 Cambodia 24 1 2 2 0 5 7 3 3 6 19
162 Djibouti 24 2 3 0 0 5 6 3 4 6 19
163 Oman 24 2 2 2 0 6 5 4 4 5 18
164 Ethiopia 23 4 4 4 0 12 4 3 1 3 11
165 Kazakhstan 23 1 3 1 0 5 4 2 4 8 18
166 Nicaragua 23 0 3 2 0 5 5 2 3 8 18
167 West Bank 23 1 4 2 3 4 6 4 4 5 19
168 Rwanda 22 2 2 4 0 8 3 2 2 7 14
169 Gabon 21 0 2 1 0 3 7 3 3 5 18
170 Democratic Republic of the Congo 19 1 2 1 0 4 7 3 1 4 15
171 Russia 19 0 3 2 0 5 3 2 2 7 14
172 Vietnam 19 0 1 2 0 3 3 1 4 8 16
173 Egypt 18 2 2 2 0 6 3 1 2 6 12
174 Transnistria 18 1 4 1 0 6 4 1 2 5 12
175 Republic of Congo 17 0 2 0 0 2 6 2 1 6 15
176 Swaziland 17 0 1 0 0 1 5 2 4 5 16
177 United Arab Emirates 17 1 2 2 0 5 3 2 3 4 12
178 Cameroon 15 1 3 2 0 6 4 2 0 3 9
179 Chad 15 0 1 0 0 1 6 4 1 3 14
180 Burundi 14 1 3 0 0 4 4 1 1 4 10
181 Iran 14 2 2 0 0 4 2 1 3 4 10
182 Venezuela 14 0 1 0 0 1 6 2 1 4 13
183 Lao PDR 13 0 0 2 0 2 3 0 2 6 11
184 Bahrain 12 2 0 2 2 2 2 1 1 6 10
185 Cuba 12 0 0 1 0 1 4 0 1 6 11
186 Gaza Strip 11 0 2 1 0 3 4 2 0 2 8
187 South Ossetia 11 2 2 0 2 2 3 2 1 3 9
188 Uzbekistan 11 1 0 1 0 2 3 1 1 4 9
189 Afghanistan 10 0 0 1 0 1 4 3 0 2 9
190 Sudan 10 0 2 0 2 0 5 2 0 3 10
191 Azerbaijan 9 0 2 0 0 2 2 1 0 4 7
192 China 9 0 0 1 3 -2 1 2 2 6 11
193 Libya 9 0 1 0 0 1 4 2 0 2 8
194 Myanmar 9 0 3 1 4 0 3 2 0 4 9
195 Yemen 9 0 1 0 0 1 2 3 1 2 8
196 Belarus 8 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 5 6
197 Tajikistan 8 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 4 8
198 Central African Republic 7 2 2 0 1 3 3 1 0 0 4
199 Crimea 7 0 0 0 2 -2 2 1 0 6 9
200 Saudi Arabia 7 0 0 1 0 1 2 0 2 2 6
201 Somalia 7 0 1 0 0 1 3 3 0 0 6
202 Equatorial Guinea 5 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 3 5
203 Eastern Donbas 4 0 0 0 1 -1 2 0 0 3 5
204 Western Sahara 4 0 0 0 3 -3 3 0 0 4 7
205 Eritrea 3 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 2
206 North Korea 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3
207 Turkmenistan 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2
208 South Sudan 1 0 1 0 4 -3 2 2 0 0 4
209 Syria 1 0 0 0 3 -3 3 0 0 1 4
210 Tibet 1 0 0 1 3 -2 0 0 0 3 3
<class 'geopandas.geodataframe.GeoDataFrame'>
Int64Index: 232 entries, 0 to 231
Data columns (total 18 columns):
 #   Column                                   Non-Null Count  Dtype   
---  ------                                   --------------  -----   
 0   name_long                                232 non-null    object  
 1   subregion                                232 non-null    object  
 2   region_wb                                232 non-null    object  
 3   geometry                                 232 non-null    geometry
 4   pop_est                                  232 non-null    int64   
 5   Country                                  195 non-null    object  
 6   Electoral Process                        195 non-null    float64 
 7   Political Pluralism                      195 non-null    float64 
 8   Functioning of Goverment                 195 non-null    float64 
 9   Discretionary Question                   195 non-null    float64 
 10  Political Rights Subtotal                195 non-null    float64 
 11  Freedom of Expression and Belief         195 non-null    float64 
 12  Associational and Organizational Rights  195 non-null    float64 
 13  Rule of Law                              195 non-null    float64 
 14  Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights  195 non-null    float64 
 15  Civil Liberties Subtotal                 195 non-null    float64 
 16  Total Score                              195 non-null    float64 
 17  Pos.                                     195 non-null    float64 
dtypes: float64(12), geometry(1), int64(1), object(4)
memory usage: 34.4+ KB

European Results¶

Freedom in the World Index (European Countries). Data Source: Freedom House
Pos. Country Total Score Electoral Process Political Pluralism Functioning of Goverment Discretionary Question Political Rights Subtotal Freedom of Expression and Belief Associational and Organizational Rights Rule of Law Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights Civil Liberties Subtotal
1 Finland 100 12 16 12 0 40 16 12 16 16 60
2 Norway 100 12 16 12 0 40 16 12 16 16 60
3 Sweden 100 12 16 12 0 40 16 12 16 16 60
4 Denmark 97 12 16 12 0 40 16 12 14 15 57
5 Ireland 97 12 16 11 0 39 16 12 14 16 58
6 Luxembourg 97 12 16 10 0 38 16 12 15 16 59
7 Netherlands 97 12 16 11 0 39 16 12 15 15 58
8 Belgium 96 12 16 11 0 39 15 12 15 15 57
9 Switzerland 96 12 15 12 0 39 15 12 15 15 57
10 Portugal 95 12 16 11 0 39 16 11 14 15 56
11 Estonia 94 12 15 11 0 38 16 12 14 14 56
12 Germany 94 12 15 12 0 39 14 12 14 15 55
13 Iceland 94 12 15 10 0 37 15 12 15 15 57
14 Andorra 93 12 15 11 0 38 14 11 15 15 55
15 Austria 93 12 15 10 0 37 14 12 15 15 56
16 San Marino 93 12 15 11 0 38 15 12 13 15 55
17 United Kingdom 93 12 16 11 0 39 14 12 13 15 54
18 Czech Republic 91 12 15 9 0 36 14 12 14 15 55
19 Italy 90 12 14 10 0 36 15 12 13 14 54
20 Liechtenstein 90 10 13 10 0 33 16 12 14 15 57
21 Slovakia 90 12 15 10 0 37 15 12 12 14 53
22 Slovenia 90 12 16 10 0 38 14 10 14 14 52
23 Spain 90 12 16 9 0 37 14 11 13 15 53
24 France 89 12 15 11 0 38 14 10 13 14 51
25 Lithuania 89 12 16 10 0 38 15 11 11 14 51
26 Malta 89 12 14 9 0 35 14 12 14 14 54
27 Latvia 88 12 15 10 0 37 14 12 11 14 51
28 Greece 87 12 15 10 0 37 14 11 11 14 50
29 Croatia 85 12 14 10 0 36 13 12 11 13 49
30 Monaco 84 8 10 9 0 27 16 12 14 15 57
31 Romania 83 12 14 9 0 35 13 11 12 12 48
32 Poland 81 10 16 8 0 34 13 10 10 14 47
33 Bulgaria 79 11 14 8 0 33 13 11 10 12 46
34 Hungary 69 9 11 6 0 26 10 10 10 13 43
35 Albania 67 9 12 7 0 28 13 8 9 9 39
36 Montenegro 67 9 11 6 0 26 12 9 9 11 41
37 North Macedonia 67 9 12 7 0 28 12 8 9 10 39
38 Moldova 62 10 12 5 0 27 12 8 6 9 35
39 Serbia 62 7 9 5 0 21 12 8 9 12 41
40 Ukraine 61 9 12 5 0 26 11 8 6 10 35
41 Bosnia and Herzegovina 53 6 9 4 0 19 10 7 7 10 34
42 Russia 19 0 3 2 0 5 3 2 2 7 14
43 Belarus 8 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 5 6

Aggregations¶

Notes¶

As far as civil liberties and political rights are concerned, along with New Zealand and Canada the 4 Nordic countries, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are yet again in the top 6 positions on the Freedom in the World index.

Asia: Similar to the Press index countries such as Mongolia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Nepal, Bhutan, Georgia, and Armenia are the bright exception compared to the rest of the Asian countries. A notable difference is India which also received a positive score. Sri Lanka is also ranked well but it will be interesting to see next year's ranking after the recent events in the country.

Africa: Most African countries fare much worse than their respective rankings in the World Press Freedom Index. Notable exceptions are southern countries such as Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Malawi, and Madagascar. As well as countries in sub-Saharan Africa such as Ghana, Benin, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

America: Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba are again in a significantly worse position than the rest of North and South America. The same countries also scored low in the World Press Freedom index.

Europe: Most European countries score highly on the Freedom in the World index with 31 out of 41 maintaining a score of 79 or more. Hungary, Moldova, Ukraine, and some Balkan countries receive a mediocre score. As in the case of the World press index, Russia and Belarus receive the worst score by far. It is worth noting, that the countries in the middle of the rank and below have received the same position as in the previous year with no discernable improvement.

Greece is ranked 51st worldwide and 27th among European countries, placing it higher than the rest of the Balkan countries but last compared to the countries of the European Union. Most of the lost points are in the civil liberties subcategory probably due to discrimination against racial and ethnic minority groups as well as policies on asylum and immigration.

WJP Rule of Law Index¶

The Rule of Law Index relies on national surveys of more than 138.000 households and 4.200 legal practitioners and experts' surveys to measure how the rule of law is experienced and perceived worldwide, covering 139 countries and jurisdictions.

Who published it?

It is published annually by the World Justice Project (WJP), an international civil society organization with the stated mission of "working to create knowledge, build awareness, and stimulate action to advance the rule of law worldwide". WJP was founded by William H. Neukom and William C. Hubbard in 2006 as a presidential initiative of the American Bar Association and with the support of 21 partners. It became independent in 2009 with offices in Washington, Mexico City, and Seattle.

Score Methodology

The score is assessed through 44 indicators organized around 9 factors:

  • Constraints on Government Powers
  • Absence of Corruption
  • Open Government
  • Fundamental Rights
  • Order and Security
  • Regulatory Enforcement
  • Civil Justice
  • Criminal Justice
  • Informal Justice

The results are collected through a set of five questionnaires administered to experts and the general public. More than 300 local experts are selected per country by the WJP and local polling companies implement the household surveys.

Those questionnaires are codified as numeric values, aggregated by country, and normalized. Then the normalized scores are aggregated into factors using simple averages that produce the final ranking. The score ranges from 0 to 1. The latest published data is for 2021.

According to the index, effective rule of law reduces corruption, combats poverty and disease, and protects people from both major and more minor injustices. It is the foundation for communities of justice, opportunity, and peace underpinning development, accountable government, and respect for fundamental rights.

You can learn more about the World of Justice Project on their site https://worldjusticeproject.org/about-us.

Their methodology is analyzed here and you can download the dataset here.

Data Preparation¶

<class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'>
Int64Index: 139 entries, 1 to 139
Data columns (total 10 columns):
 #   Column                           Non-Null Count  Dtype 
---  ------                           --------------  ----- 
 0   Country                          139 non-null    object
 1   Overall Score                    139 non-null    object
 2   Constraints on Goverment Powers  139 non-null    object
 3   Absense of Corruption            139 non-null    object
 4   Open Government                  139 non-null    object
 5   Fundamental Rights               139 non-null    object
 6   Order and Security               139 non-null    object
 7   Regulatory Enforcement           139 non-null    object
 8   Civil Justice                    139 non-null    object
 9   Criminal Justice                 139 non-null    object
dtypes: object(10)
memory usage: 11.9+ KB
Country Overall Score Constraints on Goverment Powers Absense of Corruption Open Government Fundamental Rights Order and Security Regulatory Enforcement Civil Justice Criminal Justice
1 Afghanistan 0.352819 0.422913 0.296204 0.392979 0.401684 0.29605 0.360464 0.345449 0.30681
2 Albania 0.491574 0.427895 0.368125 0.468726 0.577107 0.77915 0.434221 0.472583 0.404783
3 Algeria 0.491954 0.475444 0.446689 0.353974 0.447246 0.754499 0.481974 0.550387 0.425419
4 Angola 0.427656 0.428918 0.435283 0.388427 0.387073 0.573123 0.425326 0.435201 0.347895
5 Antigua and Barbuda 0.63371 0.608021 0.594526 0.539114 0.702043 0.782952 0.632715 0.679421 0.530887
Similar country names:  16
{'Congo, Dem. Rep.': ['Democratic Republic of the Congo', 'Republic of Congo'],
 'Congo, Rep.': ['Democratic Republic of the Congo', 'Republic of Congo'],
 "Cote d'Ivoire": ["Côte d'Ivoire", 'Cape Verde'],
 'Egypt, Arab Rep.': ['Egypt', 'Qatar'],
 'Hong Kong SAR, China': ['Hong Kong', 'Tonga'],
 'Iran, Islamic Rep.': ['Iran', 'Iraq'],
 'Korea, Rep.': ['North Korea', 'South Korea'],
 'Kyrgyz Republic': ['Democratic Republic of the Congo',
                     'Central African Republic'],
 'Mauritius': ['Nauru', 'Saint-Martin'],
 'Russian Federation': ['Russia', 'Iran'],
 'Slovak Republic': ['Democratic Republic of the Congo',
                     'Central African Republic'],
 'St. Kitts and Nevis': ['Saint Kitts and Nevis',
                         'Saint Vincent and the Grenadines'],
 'St. Lucia': ['Saint Lucia', 'Libya'],
 'St. Vincent and the Grenadines': ['Saint Vincent and the Grenadines',
                                    'São Tomé and Principe'],
 'The Bahamas': ['Bahamas', 'Saint Vincent and the Grenadines'],
 'Venezuela, RB': ['Venezuela', 'Lao PDR']}

Tables and Visualizations¶

Worldwide Results¶

2021 Rule of Law Index. Data Source: World Justice Project (WJP)
Pos. Country Overall Score Constraints on Goverment Powers Absense of Corruption Open Government Fundamental Rights Order and Security Regulatory Enforcement Civil Justice Criminal Justice
1 Denmark 0.90 0.94 0.95 0.87 0.92 0.92 0.89 0.86 0.83
2 Norway 0.90 0.94 0.94 0.89 0.91 0.93 0.88 0.85 0.85
3 Finland 0.88 0.92 0.89 0.87 0.90 0.92 0.87 0.82 0.84
4 Sweden 0.86 0.87 0.90 0.86 0.87 0.92 0.84 0.83 0.80
5 Germany 0.84 0.86 0.83 0.80 0.85 0.89 0.86 0.84 0.79
6 Netherlands 0.83 0.85 0.87 0.82 0.84 0.85 0.85 0.83 0.75
7 New Zealand 0.83 0.86 0.88 0.82 0.82 0.89 0.86 0.78 0.74
8 Luxembourg 0.83 0.82 0.87 0.79 0.85 0.93 0.85 0.79 0.73
9 Austria 0.81 0.85 0.82 0.70 0.85 0.91 0.82 0.75 0.80
10 Ireland 0.81 0.82 0.80 0.80 0.82 0.94 0.81 0.74 0.72
11 Estonia 0.81 0.83 0.80 0.80 0.82 0.89 0.79 0.80 0.72
12 Canada 0.80 0.82 0.82 0.80 0.82 0.90 0.80 0.70 0.73
13 Australia 0.79 0.81 0.81 0.80 0.78 0.87 0.81 0.74 0.72
14 Belgium 0.79 0.83 0.80 0.78 0.84 0.81 0.81 0.76 0.70
15 Japan 0.79 0.72 0.82 0.70 0.78 0.92 0.79 0.77 0.77
16 United Kingdom 0.79 0.81 0.82 0.79 0.80 0.83 0.80 0.71 0.71
17 Singapore 0.78 0.67 0.91 0.63 0.67 0.93 0.86 0.80 0.78
18 Lithuania 0.75 0.75 0.69 0.73 0.75 0.89 0.74 0.78 0.68
19 Hong Kong 0.75 0.61 0.85 0.73 0.61 0.93 0.81 0.75 0.71
20 South Korea 0.74 0.71 0.67 0.71 0.75 0.83 0.74 0.77 0.71
21 Spain 0.73 0.73 0.74 0.70 0.80 0.82 0.71 0.67 0.67
22 Czech Republic 0.73 0.72 0.65 0.68 0.79 0.89 0.71 0.67 0.71
23 France 0.72 0.72 0.74 0.76 0.71 0.76 0.76 0.70 0.61
24 Latvia 0.71 0.70 0.66 0.74 0.75 0.83 0.71 0.66 0.65
25 Uruguay 0.71 0.76 0.73 0.72 0.79 0.70 0.71 0.73 0.56
26 Portugal 0.70 0.78 0.72 0.66 0.77 0.79 0.61 0.68 0.59
27 United States 0.69 0.68 0.72 0.75 0.66 0.81 0.71 0.62 0.60
28 Cyprus 0.68 0.66 0.68 0.61 0.72 0.81 0.65 0.63 0.70
29 Slovenia 0.68 0.65 0.66 0.65 0.76 0.90 0.65 0.65 0.55
30 Malta 0.68 0.65 0.68 0.63 0.73 0.92 0.58 0.61 0.63
31 Costa Rica 0.68 0.76 0.65 0.70 0.78 0.69 0.67 0.60 0.57
32 Chile 0.66 0.72 0.69 0.70 0.72 0.67 0.64 0.63 0.55
33 Slovakia 0.66 0.68 0.51 0.69 0.73 0.90 0.65 0.57 0.57
34 Italy 0.66 0.71 0.64 0.63 0.73 0.75 0.61 0.56 0.64
35 Barbados 0.65 0.64 0.69 0.53 0.73 0.78 0.62 0.64 0.58
36 Poland 0.64 0.54 0.72 0.59 0.61 0.86 0.61 0.61 0.58
37 United Arab Emirates 0.64 0.56 0.80 0.35 0.45 0.91 0.71 0.66 0.67
38 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 0.64 0.60 0.69 0.52 0.71 0.76 0.55 0.63 0.62
39 Antigua and Barbuda 0.63 0.61 0.59 0.54 0.70 0.78 0.63 0.68 0.53
40 Saint Kitts and Nevis 0.63 0.61 0.65 0.45 0.70 0.77 0.61 0.67 0.59
41 Romania 0.63 0.61 0.55 0.62 0.67 0.83 0.58 0.63 0.53
42 Rwanda 0.62 0.62 0.65 0.59 0.50 0.82 0.59 0.66 0.53
43 Saint Lucia 0.62 0.59 0.63 0.48 0.67 0.75 0.59 0.69 0.54
44 Namibia 0.62 0.67 0.52 0.58 0.65 0.75 0.59 0.64 0.55
45 Mauritius 0.61 0.59 0.58 0.52 0.63 0.76 0.62 0.63 0.54
46 Croatia 0.61 0.56 0.56 0.60 0.67 0.85 0.57 0.57 0.49
47 Bahamas 0.61 0.62 0.64 0.52 0.68 0.74 0.50 0.57 0.60
48 Greece 0.61 0.68 0.56 0.61 0.65 0.71 0.57 0.60 0.50
49 Georgia 0.61 0.54 0.68 0.59 0.63 0.79 0.56 0.54 0.53
50 Grenada 0.59 0.57 0.66 0.44 0.63 0.77 0.56 0.61 0.50
51 Botswana 0.59 0.60 0.58 0.48 0.58 0.71 0.60 0.60 0.58
52 South Africa 0.58 0.63 0.48 0.63 0.64 0.61 0.55 0.61 0.52
53 Dominica 0.58 0.53 0.60 0.50 0.62 0.74 0.53 0.56 0.56
54 Malaysia 0.57 0.57 0.58 0.41 0.51 0.78 0.57 0.64 0.55
55 Jamaica 0.57 0.64 0.55 0.56 0.63 0.63 0.55 0.53 0.48
56 Argentina 0.56 0.57 0.48 0.62 0.69 0.62 0.50 0.57 0.42
57 Senegal 0.55 0.57 0.54 0.43 0.60 0.71 0.55 0.56 0.47
58 Ghana 0.55 0.66 0.39 0.49 0.58 0.72 0.54 0.57 0.46
59 Jordan 0.55 0.46 0.59 0.40 0.48 0.76 0.55 0.61 0.56
60 Kosovo 0.55 0.53 0.46 0.55 0.59 0.82 0.47 0.48 0.47
61 Mongolia 0.54 0.54 0.43 0.50 0.58 0.76 0.50 0.55 0.49
62 Bulgaria 0.54 0.46 0.44 0.56 0.60 0.77 0.52 0.54 0.44
63 Trinidad and Tobago 0.53 0.56 0.49 0.56 0.59 0.66 0.51 0.58 0.32
64 North Macedonia 0.53 0.47 0.45 0.50 0.59 0.79 0.47 0.53 0.45
65 Tunisia 0.53 0.60 0.48 0.50 0.55 0.67 0.52 0.50 0.42
66 Kazakhstan 0.52 0.43 0.49 0.46 0.45 0.79 0.52 0.62 0.45
67 Malawi 0.52 0.58 0.43 0.45 0.58 0.69 0.47 0.56 0.44
68 Indonesia 0.52 0.67 0.40 0.54 0.51 0.68 0.55 0.45 0.38
69 Hungary 0.52 0.39 0.49 0.44 0.56 0.90 0.46 0.45 0.46
70 Nepal 0.52 0.59 0.41 0.52 0.51 0.73 0.51 0.46 0.44
71 Panama 0.52 0.53 0.41 0.58 0.63 0.67 0.51 0.47 0.33
72 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.52 0.45 0.42 0.47 0.59 0.78 0.48 0.47 0.46
73 Moldova 0.51 0.47 0.36 0.57 0.56 0.81 0.45 0.50 0.39
74 Ukraine 0.51 0.47 0.33 0.57 0.61 0.75 0.44 0.54 0.37
75 Burkina Faso 0.50 0.57 0.43 0.48 0.56 0.56 0.49 0.46 0.49
76 Sri Lanka 0.50 0.54 0.49 0.52 0.53 0.56 0.50 0.45 0.43
77 Brazil 0.50 0.51 0.43 0.60 0.48 0.64 0.49 0.52 0.33
78 Guyana 0.50 0.54 0.45 0.44 0.56 0.63 0.45 0.53 0.40
79 India 0.50 0.59 0.40 0.60 0.49 0.60 0.48 0.44 0.39
80 Thailand 0.50 0.46 0.47 0.49 0.47 0.71 0.46 0.48 0.43
81 Serbia 0.49 0.38 0.43 0.46 0.56 0.77 0.47 0.50 0.39
82 Algeria 0.49 0.48 0.45 0.35 0.45 0.75 0.48 0.55 0.43
83 Albania 0.49 0.43 0.37 0.47 0.58 0.78 0.43 0.47 0.40
84 Suriname 0.49 0.48 0.44 0.38 0.53 0.64 0.45 0.48 0.52
85 Uzbekistan 0.49 0.38 0.46 0.37 0.44 0.90 0.44 0.50 0.45
86 Colombia 0.49 0.53 0.39 0.62 0.51 0.56 0.52 0.47 0.32
87 Peru 0.49 0.60 0.32 0.54 0.61 0.61 0.48 0.43 0.32
88 Vietnam 0.49 0.45 0.41 0.46 0.45 0.77 0.44 0.46 0.46
89 The Gambia 0.49 0.59 0.47 0.37 0.52 0.70 0.37 0.50 0.39
90 Morocco 0.49 0.51 0.42 0.43 0.43 0.68 0.53 0.53 0.36
91 Benin 0.49 0.50 0.38 0.39 0.53 0.77 0.48 0.42 0.42
92 Ecuador 0.48 0.50 0.41 0.51 0.52 0.62 0.48 0.49 0.36
93 Belize 0.48 0.44 0.43 0.44 0.51 0.70 0.41 0.52 0.37
94 Dominican Republic 0.48 0.47 0.39 0.53 0.57 0.64 0.41 0.44 0.36
95 El Salvador 0.48 0.47 0.36 0.51 0.50 0.67 0.50 0.50 0.30
96 Paraguay 0.48 0.49 0.30 0.58 0.53 0.71 0.47 0.44 0.28
97 Belarus 0.48 0.27 0.51 0.33 0.41 0.80 0.46 0.57 0.43
98 China 0.47 0.31 0.53 0.38 0.27 0.81 0.49 0.52 0.45
99 Kyrgyzstan 0.47 0.45 0.30 0.52 0.48 0.76 0.43 0.47 0.32
100 Tanzania 0.47 0.51 0.42 0.37 0.43 0.69 0.44 0.48 0.38
101 Russia 0.46 0.35 0.42 0.49 0.42 0.70 0.48 0.53 0.31
102 Philippines 0.46 0.48 0.44 0.50 0.39 0.63 0.48 0.45 0.31
103 Togo 0.45 0.36 0.43 0.30 0.46 0.74 0.49 0.49 0.36
104 Lebanon 0.45 0.49 0.36 0.42 0.47 0.64 0.44 0.42 0.35
105 Côte d'Ivoire 0.45 0.38 0.35 0.37 0.45 0.68 0.50 0.50 0.36
106 Kenya 0.44 0.48 0.27 0.49 0.47 0.55 0.43 0.47 0.39
107 Zambia 0.44 0.43 0.36 0.38 0.41 0.68 0.43 0.46 0.40
108 Sierra Leone 0.44 0.49 0.36 0.38 0.51 0.67 0.36 0.42 0.36
109 Guatemala 0.44 0.52 0.33 0.51 0.53 0.59 0.42 0.36 0.29
110 Liberia 0.44 0.50 0.31 0.44 0.51 0.60 0.42 0.43 0.31
111 Niger 0.44 0.39 0.40 0.36 0.48 0.62 0.47 0.45 0.37
112 Madagascar 0.44 0.44 0.27 0.46 0.46 0.71 0.38 0.45 0.33
113 Mexico 0.43 0.45 0.26 0.60 0.49 0.53 0.44 0.37 0.29
114 Angola 0.43 0.43 0.44 0.39 0.39 0.57 0.43 0.44 0.35
115 Mali 0.43 0.45 0.32 0.45 0.51 0.48 0.48 0.42 0.29
116 Sudan 0.42 0.45 0.40 0.40 0.38 0.64 0.36 0.40 0.37
117 Turkey 0.42 0.28 0.46 0.40 0.31 0.70 0.41 0.43 0.36
118 Republic of Congo 0.42 0.38 0.31 0.36 0.40 0.63 0.48 0.44 0.35
119 Iran 0.42 0.35 0.40 0.28 0.22 0.74 0.45 0.54 0.36
120 Guinea 0.41 0.38 0.27 0.36 0.49 0.72 0.36 0.41 0.31
121 Nigeria 0.41 0.50 0.32 0.42 0.43 0.34 0.43 0.48 0.40
122 Ethiopia 0.41 0.38 0.46 0.33 0.33 0.61 0.38 0.43 0.35
123 Mozambique 0.40 0.42 0.36 0.37 0.41 0.49 0.40 0.44 0.32
124 Bangladesh 0.40 0.37 0.35 0.42 0.31 0.63 0.40 0.38 0.32
125 Uganda 0.39 0.40 0.26 0.38 0.36 0.59 0.42 0.41 0.32
126 Honduras 0.39 0.33 0.31 0.42 0.41 0.65 0.37 0.40 0.25
127 Zimbabwe 0.39 0.33 0.31 0.32 0.34 0.67 0.35 0.46 0.37
128 Myanmar 0.39 0.39 0.44 0.36 0.27 0.64 0.45 0.35 0.26
129 Bolivia 0.39 0.37 0.27 0.43 0.47 0.59 0.41 0.33 0.22
130 Pakistan 0.39 0.47 0.31 0.42 0.38 0.37 0.39 0.40 0.35
131 Nicaragua 0.38 0.25 0.32 0.38 0.34 0.71 0.39 0.36 0.28
132 Haiti 0.38 0.39 0.28 0.38 0.43 0.53 0.31 0.41 0.28
133 Mauritania 0.36 0.34 0.30 0.29 0.40 0.64 0.28 0.39 0.29
134 Afghanistan 0.35 0.42 0.30 0.39 0.40 0.30 0.36 0.35 0.31
135 Cameroon 0.35 0.36 0.25 0.32 0.36 0.48 0.40 0.39 0.25
136 Egypt 0.35 0.24 0.38 0.22 0.24 0.63 0.36 0.37 0.34
137 Democratic Republic of the Congo 0.35 0.40 0.16 0.33 0.41 0.48 0.35 0.36 0.27
138 Cambodia 0.32 0.28 0.23 0.26 0.33 0.67 0.27 0.25 0.25
139 Venezuela 0.27 0.17 0.29 0.28 0.29 0.50 0.19 0.27 0.12

European Results¶

2021 Rule of Law Index (European Countries). Data Source: World Justice Project (WJP)
Pos. Country Overall Score Constraints on Goverment Powers Absense of Corruption Open Government Fundamental Rights Order and Security Regulatory Enforcement Civil Justice Criminal Justice
1 Denmark 0.90 0.94 0.95 0.87 0.92 0.92 0.89 0.86 0.83
2 Norway 0.90 0.94 0.94 0.89 0.91 0.93 0.88 0.85 0.85
3 Finland 0.88 0.92 0.89 0.87 0.90 0.92 0.87 0.82 0.84
4 Sweden 0.86 0.87 0.90 0.86 0.87 0.92 0.84 0.83 0.80
5 Germany 0.84 0.86 0.83 0.80 0.85 0.89 0.86 0.84 0.79
6 Netherlands 0.83 0.85 0.87 0.82 0.84 0.85 0.85 0.83 0.75
7 Luxembourg 0.83 0.82 0.87 0.79 0.85 0.93 0.85 0.79 0.73
8 Austria 0.81 0.85 0.82 0.70 0.85 0.91 0.82 0.75 0.80
9 Ireland 0.81 0.82 0.80 0.80 0.82 0.94 0.81 0.74 0.72
10 Estonia 0.81 0.83 0.80 0.80 0.82 0.89 0.79 0.80 0.72
11 Belgium 0.79 0.83 0.80 0.78 0.84 0.81 0.81 0.76 0.70
12 United Kingdom 0.79 0.81 0.82 0.79 0.80 0.83 0.80 0.71 0.71
13 Lithuania 0.75 0.75 0.69 0.73 0.75 0.89 0.74 0.78 0.68
14 Spain 0.73 0.73 0.74 0.70 0.80 0.82 0.71 0.67 0.67
15 Czech Republic 0.73 0.72 0.65 0.68 0.79 0.89 0.71 0.67 0.71
16 France 0.72 0.72 0.74 0.76 0.71 0.76 0.76 0.70 0.61
17 Latvia 0.71 0.70 0.66 0.74 0.75 0.83 0.71 0.66 0.65
18 Portugal 0.70 0.78 0.72 0.66 0.77 0.79 0.61 0.68 0.59
19 Slovenia 0.68 0.65 0.66 0.65 0.76 0.90 0.65 0.65 0.55
20 Malta 0.68 0.65 0.68 0.63 0.73 0.92 0.58 0.61 0.63
21 Slovakia 0.66 0.68 0.51 0.69 0.73 0.90 0.65 0.57 0.57
22 Italy 0.66 0.71 0.64 0.63 0.73 0.75 0.61 0.56 0.64
23 Poland 0.64 0.54 0.72 0.59 0.61 0.86 0.61 0.61 0.58
24 Romania 0.63 0.61 0.55 0.62 0.67 0.83 0.58 0.63 0.53
25 Croatia 0.61 0.56 0.56 0.60 0.67 0.85 0.57 0.57 0.49
26 Greece 0.61 0.68 0.56 0.61 0.65 0.71 0.57 0.60 0.50
27 Bulgaria 0.54 0.46 0.44 0.56 0.60 0.77 0.52 0.54 0.44
28 North Macedonia 0.53 0.47 0.45 0.50 0.59 0.79 0.47 0.53 0.45
29 Hungary 0.52 0.39 0.49 0.44 0.56 0.90 0.46 0.45 0.46
30 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.52 0.45 0.42 0.47 0.59 0.78 0.48 0.47 0.46
31 Moldova 0.51 0.47 0.36 0.57 0.56 0.81 0.45 0.50 0.39
32 Ukraine 0.51 0.47 0.33 0.57 0.61 0.75 0.44 0.54 0.37
33 Serbia 0.49 0.38 0.43 0.46 0.56 0.77 0.47 0.50 0.39
34 Albania 0.49 0.43 0.37 0.47 0.58 0.78 0.43 0.47 0.40
35 Belarus 0.48 0.27 0.51 0.33 0.41 0.80 0.46 0.57 0.43
36 Russia 0.46 0.35 0.42 0.49 0.42 0.70 0.48 0.53 0.31

Aggregations¶

Notes¶

Unsurprisingly at the top of the list of the Rule of Law Index for 2021 are the four Scandinavian countries that we saw in the previous indices. It is also worth mentioning New Zealand and Ireland with good rankings in all three indices examined so far.

In addition to most European Countries scoring a high place, other notable high rankings are South Korea and Japan in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand in Oceania, Canada and the United States in North America, Guyane française, Uruguay and Chile in South America, and Costa Rica in Central America. All of those countries have consistently good rankings in all the indices we have checked so far.

In Africa, several countries have no score, with the rest receiving a low position except for the three countries of the South, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, and Ghana, Guinea Bissau in Central Africa.

Greece ranks 48th out of 139 countries surveyed and 26th in Europe out of 36 countries. Worse than all the countries in the European Union, only surpasses Hungary, Moldova, Ukraine, most Balkan countries, and of course Belarus and Russia which are consistently in the last position in Europe.

Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International¶

Who published it?

The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is published annually since 1995 by Transparency International, a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, Transparency International is a non-profit, non-governmental organization purposed to combat global corruption and prevent criminal activities arising from it.

Score Methodology

CPI ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be, determined by at least 3 data sources drawn from 13 different corruption surveys and assessments. These data sources are collected by a variety of institutions, including the World Bank and the World Economic Forum. CPI has received criticism over the years firstly due to the difficulty in measuring corruption, which, by definition, happens behind the scenes, and secondly, the need to rely on third-party surveys to compile the index. Note that one of those data sources is the WJP Rule of Law Index we examined previously.

The index ranks 180 countries and territories around the world and the results are given on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

If you want to learn more about Transparency International you can visit their site https://www.transparency.org. You can read more about the scoring methodology here and, you can download the data CPI (2021) by Transparency International Note that the latest data available are from 2021.

Data Preparation¶

<class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'>
RangeIndex: 180 entries, 0 to 179
Data columns (total 22 columns):
 #   Column                                               Non-Null Count  Dtype  
---  ------                                               --------------  -----  
 0   Country / Territory                                  180 non-null    object 
 1   ISO3                                                 180 non-null    object 
 2   Region                                               180 non-null    object 
 3   CPI score 2021                                       180 non-null    int64  
 4   Rank                                                 180 non-null    int64  
 5   Standard error                                       180 non-null    float64
 6   Number of sources                                    180 non-null    int64  
 7   Lower CI                                             180 non-null    float64
 8   Upper CI                                             180 non-null    float64
 9   African Development Bank CPIA                        37 non-null     float64
 10  Bertelsmann Foundation Sustainable Governance Index  41 non-null     float64
 11  Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index          137 non-null    float64
 12  Economist Intelligence Unit Country Ratings          131 non-null    float64
 13  Freedom House Nations in Transit                     29 non-null     float64
 14  Global Insights Country Risk Ratings                 180 non-null    int64  
 15  IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook                   64 non-null     float64
 16  PERC Asia Risk Guide                                 15 non-null     float64
 17  PRS International Country Risk Guide                 139 non-null    float64
 18  Varieties of Democracy Project                       175 non-null    float64
 19  World Bank CPIA                                      67 non-null     float64
 20  World Economic Forum EOS                             130 non-null    float64
 21  World Justice Project Rule of Law Index              136 non-null    float64
dtypes: float64(15), int64(4), object(3)
memory usage: 31.1+ KB
Country / Territory ISO3 Region CPI score 2021 Rank Standard error Number of sources Lower CI Upper CI African Development Bank CPIA ... Economist Intelligence Unit Country Ratings Freedom House Nations in Transit Global Insights Country Risk Ratings IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook PERC Asia Risk Guide PRS International Country Risk Guide Varieties of Democracy Project World Bank CPIA World Economic Forum EOS World Justice Project Rule of Law Index
0 Denmark DNK WE/EU 88 1 1.850507 8 84.95592 91.04408 NaN ... 90.0 NaN 83 93.0 NaN 100.0 79.0 NaN 78.0 87.0
1 Finland FIN WE/EU 88 1 1.248280 8 85.94658 90.05342 NaN ... 90.0 NaN 83 94.0 NaN 93.0 77.0 NaN 91.0 87.0
2 New Zealand NZL AP 88 1 1.427644 8 85.65153 90.34847 NaN ... 90.0 NaN 83 91.0 NaN 93.0 78.0 NaN 85.0 83.0
3 Norway NOR WE/EU 85 4 1.072085 7 83.23642 86.76358 NaN ... 90.0 NaN 83 81.0 NaN 85.0 78.0 NaN NaN 87.0
4 Singapore SGP AP 85 4 1.159654 9 83.09237 86.90763 NaN ... 90.0 NaN 83 87.0 91.0 85.0 78.0 NaN 91.0 84.0

5 rows × 22 columns

Similar country names:  15
{'Cabo Verde': ['Cape Verde', 'Macao'],
 'Congo': ['Republic of Congo', 'Tonga'],
 "Cote d'Ivoire": ["Côte d'Ivoire", 'Cape Verde'],
 'Czechia': ['Czech Republic'],
 'Eswatini': ['Palestine', 'Swaziland'],
 'Gambia': ['The Gambia', 'Guam'],
 'Guinea Bissau': ['Guinea-Bissau', 'Nauru'],
 'Korea, North': ['North Korea', 'South Korea'],
 'Korea, South': ['South Korea', 'North Korea'],
 'Laos': ['Lao PDR'],
 'Maldives': [],
 'Mauritius': ['Nauru', 'Saint-Martin'],
 'Sao Tome and Principe': ['São Tomé and Principe', 'San Marino'],
 'Seychelles': [],
 'United States of America': ['United States', 'Isle of Man']}

Table and Visualizations¶

Worldwide Results¶

2021 Corruption Perceptions Index. Data Source: Transparency International
Pos. Country CPI Score
1 Denmark 88
1 Finland 88
1 New Zealand 88
4 Norway 85
4 Singapore 85
4 Sweden 85
7 Switzerland 84
8 Netherlands 82
9 Luxembourg 81
10 Germany 80
11 United Kingdom 78
12 Hong Kong 76
13 Canada 74
13 Iceland 74
13 Ireland 74
13 Estonia 74
13 Austria 74
18 Australia 73
18 Belgium 73
18 Japan 73
18 Uruguay 73
22 France 71
23 Seychelles 70
24 United Arab Emirates 69
25 Bhutan 68
25 Taiwan 68
27 Chile 67
27 United States 67
29 Barbados 65
30 Bahamas 64
31 Qatar 63
32 South Korea 62
32 Portugal 62
34 Lithuania 61
34 Spain 61
36 Israel 59
36 Latvia 59
36 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 59
39 Cape Verde 58
39 Costa Rica 58
41 Slovenia 57
42 Italy 56
42 Poland 56
42 Saint Lucia 56
45 Botswana 55
45 Dominica 55
45 Fiji 55
45 Georgia 55
49 Czech Republic 54
49 Malta 54
49 Mauritius 54
52 Grenada 53
52 Cyprus 53
52 Rwanda 53
52 Saudi Arabia 53
56 Oman 52
56 Slovakia 52
58 Armenia 49
58 Greece 49
58 Jordan 49
58 Namibia 49
62 Malaysia 48
63 Croatia 47
64 Cuba 46
64 Montenegro 46
66 China 45
66 Romania 45
66 São Tomé and Principe 45
66 Vanuatu 45
70 Jamaica 44
70 South Africa 44
70 Tunisia 44
73 Ghana 43
73 Hungary 43
73 Kuwait 43
73 Senegal 43
73 Solomon Islands 43
78 Bahrain 42
78 Benin 42
78 Burkina Faso 42
78 Bulgaria 42
82 Timor-Leste 41
82 Belarus 41
82 Trinidad and Tobago 41
85 India 40
85 Maldives 40
87 Kosovo 39
87 Colombia 39
87 Ethiopia 39
87 Guyana 39
87 Morocco 39
87 North Macedonia 39
87 Suriname 39
87 Tanzania 39
87 Vietnam 39
96 Argentina 38
96 Brazil 38
96 Indonesia 38
96 Lesotho 38
96 Serbia 38
96 Turkey 38
102 The Gambia 37
102 Kazakhstan 37
102 Sri Lanka 37
105 Côte d'Ivoire 36
105 Ecuador 36
105 Moldova 36
105 Panama 36
105 Peru 36
110 Albania 35
110 Bosnia and Herzegovina 35
110 Malawi 35
110 Mongolia 35
110 Thailand 35
115 El Salvador 34
115 Sierra Leone 34
117 Egypt 33
117 Nepal 33
117 Philippines 33
117 Zambia 33
117 Algeria 33
122 Swaziland 32
122 Ukraine 32
124 Gabon 31
124 Mexico 31
124 Niger 31
124 Papua New Guinea 31
128 Azerbaijan 30
128 Bolivia 30
128 Djibouti 30
128 Dominican Republic 30
128 Lao PDR 30
128 Paraguay 30
128 Togo 30
128 Kenya 30
136 Angola 29
136 Liberia 29
136 Mali 29
136 Russia 29
140 Mauritania 28
140 Myanmar 28
140 Pakistan 28
140 Uzbekistan 28
144 Cameroon 27
144 Kyrgyzstan 27
144 Uganda 27
147 Bangladesh 26
147 Madagascar 26
147 Mozambique 26
150 Guatemala 25
150 Guinea 25
150 Iran 25
150 Tajikistan 25
154 Lebanon 24
154 Nigeria 24
154 Central African Republic 24
157 Cambodia 23
157 Honduras 23
157 Iraq 23
157 Zimbabwe 23
161 Eritrea 22
162 Republic of Congo 21
162 Guinea-Bissau 21
164 Chad 20
164 Comoros 20
164 Haiti 20
164 Nicaragua 20
164 Sudan 20
169 Burundi 19
169 Democratic Republic of the Congo 19
169 Turkmenistan 19
172 Equatorial Guinea 17
172 Libya 17
174 Afghanistan 16
174 North Korea 16
174 Yemen 16
177 Venezuela 14
178 Somalia 13
178 Syria 13
180 South Sudan 11

European Results¶

2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (European Countries). Data Source: Transparency International
Pos. Country CPI Score
1 Denmark 88
1 Finland 88
3 Norway 85
3 Sweden 85
5 Switzerland 84
6 Netherlands 82
7 Luxembourg 81
8 Germany 80
9 United Kingdom 78
11 Austria 74
11 Estonia 74
11 Iceland 74
11 Ireland 74
14 Belgium 73
15 France 71
16 Portugal 62
17 Spain 61
17 Lithuania 61
19 Latvia 59
20 Slovenia 57
21 Italy 56
21 Poland 56
23 Czech Republic 54
23 Malta 54
25 Slovakia 52
26 Greece 49
27 Croatia 47
28 Montenegro 46
29 Romania 45
30 Hungary 43
31 Bulgaria 42
32 Belarus 41
33 North Macedonia 39
34 Serbia 38
35 Moldova 36
36 Albania 35
36 Bosnia and Herzegovina 35
38 Ukraine 32
39 Russia 29

Aggregations¶

Notes¶

The same 4 Nordic countries top the CPI index along with New Zealand and Singapore. The rest countries in the top ten are all European, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany. All countries have been ranked well in the previous indicators as well. Contrary to the indices examined above, the majority of Eastern European countries receive a medium to a low score. More than two-thirds of the 180 countries included in the CPI have a score under 50, with an average corruption score of just 43.

The same applies for the American continent. The only countries with a positive score are Canada and the USA in the North, Costa Rica in Central America and Chile, French Guinea, and Uruguay in the South. In the worst ranking are the African countries with Botswana receiving the best score (55) in 45th place.

Greece takes 58th place out of 180 countries worldwide and 26th place out of 39 European countries. As in previous indices, it is in a better position than most of the Balkan countries and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Nevertheless, it is below the rest of the European Union countries in its best rank so far.

Human Development Index by HDRO¶

Who published it?

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development. It was first developed by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and later was used by the United Nations to measure a country's development. Nowadays it is compiled by the Human Development Report Office as part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). UNDP is an agency tasked with helping countries achieve economic growth and human development with offices in 170 countries. You can read more in their site https://hdr.undp.org

Scoring Methodology

The HDI is the geometric mean of three normalized indices:

  • Life expectancy index which assesed by life expectancy at birth
  • Education index which measured by the mean years of schooling for adults aged 25 years or more and the expected years of schooling for children on school entering age
  • The GNI index measured by the logarithm of gross national income (GNI) per capita

HDI does not take into account factors like inequalities, poverty, and human security. From 2010 Human Development report introduced an Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI). IHDI is based on a distribution-sensitive class of composite indices proposed by Foster, Lopez-Calva and Szekely (2005). The same three base indices (Life expectancy, Education and Income) are adjusted ("discounted") for inequalities on each country's population (coefficient of human inequality). The IHDI again is computed as a geometric mean of these inequality-adjusted indices. In this sense, HDI is the potential maximum level of human development that could achieved by each Country if there was no inquality.

Latest Human Development evaluates the development of 189 countries from 0 to 1 (1 = most developed). Inequality-adjusted HDI ranks 152 countries in the same scale.

You can find more information about the HDI index and its methodology here and IHDI here

Data Preparation¶

<class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'>
Int64Index: 189 entries, 0 to 191
Data columns (total 13 columns):
 #   Column                                     Non-Null Count  Dtype  
---  ------                                     --------------  -----  
 0   Pos.                                       189 non-null    int64  
 1   Country                                    189 non-null    object 
 2   HDI                                        189 non-null    float64
 3   IHDI                                       152 non-null    float64
 4   IHDI overall loss %                        152 non-null    float64
 5   HDI rank difference                        152 non-null    float64
 6   Coefficient of human inequality            152 non-null    float64
 7   Inequality in life expectancy %            183 non-null    float64
 8   Inequality-adjusted life expectancy index  183 non-null    float64
 9   Inequality in education %                  171 non-null    float64
 10  Inequality-adjusted education index        171 non-null    float64
 11  Inequality in income %                     156 non-null    float64
 12  Inequality-adjusted income index           156 non-null    float64
dtypes: float64(11), int64(1), object(1)
memory usage: 20.7+ KB
Pos. Country HDI IHDI IHDI overall loss % HDI rank difference Coefficient of human inequality Inequality in life expectancy % Inequality-adjusted life expectancy index Inequality in education % Inequality-adjusted education index Inequality in income % Inequality-adjusted income index
0 1 Norway 0.96 0.90 6.06 0.0 5.96 3.0 0.93 2.33 0.91 12.56 0.86
1 2 Ireland 0.96 0.88 7.33 -3.0 7.22 3.4 0.93 3.29 0.89 14.98 0.84
2 2 Switzerland 0.96 0.89 6.91 -1.0 6.75 3.5 0.95 1.83 0.88 14.93 0.84
3 4 Hong Kong, China (SAR) 0.95 0.82 13.17 -17.0 12.63 2.5 0.97 9.80 0.79 25.60 0.72
4 4 Iceland 0.95 0.89 5.80 2.0 5.64 2.4 0.95 2.79 0.90 11.74 0.84
Similar country names:  23
{'Bolivia (Plurinational State of)': ['Bolivia', 'Isle of Man'],
 'Cabo Verde': ['Cape Verde', 'Macao'],
 'Congo': ['Democratic Republic of the Congo', 'Republic of Congo'],
 'Congo (Democratic Republic of the)': ['Democratic Republic of the Congo',
                                        'Isle of Man'],
 'Czechia': ['Czech Republic'],
 'Eswatini (Kingdom of)': ['Democratic Republic of the Congo', 'Isle of Man'],
 'Gambia': ['The Gambia', 'Guam'],
 'Hong Kong, China (SAR)': ['Hong Kong'],
 'Iran (Islamic Republic of)': ['Iran', 'Isle of Man'],
 'Korea (Republic of)': ['Democratic Republic of the Congo', 'North Korea'],
 "Lao People's Democratic Republic": ['Czech Republic', 'Republic of Congo'],
 'Maldives': ['Moldova', 'Somalia'],
 'Mauritius': ['Nauru', 'Saint-Martin'],
 'Micronesia (Federated States of)': ['Federated States of Micronesia',
                                      'Isle of Man'],
 'Moldova (Republic of)': ['Moldova', 'Democratic Republic of the Congo'],
 'Palestine, State of': ['Palestine', 'Democratic Republic of the Congo'],
 'Russian Federation': ['Russia', 'Iran'],
 'Sao Tome and Principe': ['São Tomé and Principe', 'San Marino'],
 'Seychelles': [],
 'Syrian Arab Republic': ['Syria', 'Democratic Republic of the Congo'],
 'Tanzania (United Republic of)': ['Tanzania', 'Isle of Man'],
 'Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)': ['Venezuela', 'Isle of Man'],
 'Viet Nam': ['Vietnam']}

Table and Visualizations¶

Worldwide Results¶

2020 Human Development Index. Data Source: UN Human Development Report Office
Pos. Country HDI IHDI Coefficient of human inequality Inequality-adjusted life expectancy index Inequality-adjusted education index Inequality-adjusted income index
1 Norway 0.96 0.90 5.96 0.93 0.91 0.86
2 Ireland 0.96 0.88 7.22 0.93 0.89 0.84
2 Switzerland 0.96 0.89 6.75 0.95 0.88 0.84
4 Hong Kong 0.95 0.82 12.63 0.97 0.79 0.72
4 Iceland 0.95 0.89 5.64 0.95 0.90 0.84
6 Germany 0.95 0.87 7.91 0.91 0.92 0.79
7 Sweden 0.94 0.88 6.52 0.94 0.88 0.83
8 Australia 0.94 0.87 7.90 0.94 0.90 0.77
8 Netherlands 0.94 0.88 6.90 0.93 0.86 0.84
10 Denmark 0.94 0.88 5.96 0.90 0.89 0.85
11 Finland 0.94 0.89 5.29 0.92 0.91 0.83
11 Singapore 0.94 0.81 12.83 0.95 0.75 0.75
13 United Kingdom 0.93 0.86 7.95 0.90 0.90 0.77
14 Belgium 0.93 0.86 7.72 0.91 0.83 0.84
14 New Zealand 0.93 0.86 7.51 0.92 0.91 0.76
16 Canada 0.93 0.85 8.44 0.92 0.87 0.77
17 United States 0.93 0.81 12.07 0.85 0.88 0.71
18 Austria 0.92 0.86 6.91 0.91 0.84 0.82
19 Israel 0.92 0.81 10.88 0.94 0.83 0.69
19 Japan 0.92 0.84 8.07 0.97 0.81 0.76
19 Liechtenstein 0.92 - - - - -
22 Slovenia 0.92 0.88 4.57 0.92 0.89 0.82
23 South Korea 0.92 0.82 10.69 0.94 0.79 0.73
23 Luxembourg 0.92 0.83 9.56 0.93 0.76 0.81
25 Spain 0.90 0.78 13.11 0.95 0.69 0.73
26 France 0.90 0.82 8.93 0.93 0.74 0.80
27 Czech Republic 0.90 0.86 4.42 0.89 0.88 0.82
28 Malta 0.90 0.82 7.93 0.92 0.77 0.79
29 Estonia 0.89 0.83 6.89 0.87 0.86 0.76
29 Italy 0.89 0.78 11.82 0.95 0.71 0.72
31 United Arab Emirates 0.89 - - 0.85 0.66 -
32 Greece 0.89 0.79 10.79 0.92 0.76 0.71
33 Cyprus 0.89 0.80 9.10 0.90 0.74 0.78
34 Lithuania 0.88 0.79 9.98 0.81 0.86 0.71
35 Poland 0.88 0.81 7.57 0.86 0.83 0.75
36 Andorra 0.87 - - - 0.65 -
37 Latvia 0.87 0.78 9.17 0.80 0.86 0.69
38 Portugal 0.86 0.76 11.80 0.92 0.65 0.73
39 Slovakia 0.86 0.81 6.08 0.84 0.81 0.77
40 Hungary 0.85 0.79 7.26 0.84 0.80 0.74
40 Saudi Arabia 0.85 - - 0.79 0.65 -
42 Bahrain 0.85 - - 0.83 0.59 -
43 Chile 0.85 0.71 15.94 0.87 0.73 0.57
43 Croatia 0.85 0.78 7.88 0.86 0.77 0.73
45 Qatar 0.85 - - 0.87 0.58 -
46 Argentina 0.84 0.73 13.24 0.80 0.80 0.61
47 Brunei Darussalam 0.84 - - 0.79 - -
48 Montenegro 0.83 0.75 9.45 0.84 0.74 0.67
49 Romania 0.83 0.73 11.45 0.81 0.72 0.66
50 Palau 0.83 - - - 0.84 -
51 Kazakhstan 0.82 0.77 7.07 0.76 0.80 0.74
52 Russia 0.82 0.74 10.02 0.75 0.79 0.68
53 Belarus 0.82 0.77 6.30 0.81 0.81 0.70
54 Turkey 0.82 0.68 16.53 0.81 0.61 0.64
55 Uruguay 0.82 0.71 12.59 0.82 0.72 0.61
56 Bulgaria 0.82 0.72 11.33 0.80 0.73 0.64
57 Panama 0.82 0.64 20.09 0.79 0.62 0.54
58 Bahamas 0.81 - - 0.77 0.69 -
58 Barbados 0.81 0.68 15.93 0.83 0.74 0.50
60 Oman 0.81 0.71 12.92 0.83 0.63 0.67
61 Georgia 0.81 0.72 11.52 0.76 0.83 0.58
62 Costa Rica 0.81 0.66 17.54 0.86 0.64 0.52
62 Malaysia 0.81 - - 0.81 0.64 -
64 Kuwait 0.81 - - 0.80 0.50 -
64 Serbia 0.81 0.70 12.11 0.82 0.72 0.59
66 Mauritius 0.80 0.69 13.60 0.77 0.64 0.68
67 Seychelles 0.80 0.67 15.19 0.74 0.68 0.60
67 Trinidad and Tobago 0.80 - - 0.70 - -
69 Albania 0.80 0.71 10.89 0.84 0.65 0.65
70 Cuba 0.78 - - 0.86 0.73 -
70 Iran 0.78 0.69 11.30 0.79 0.72 0.59
72 Sri Lanka 0.78 0.67 13.79 0.82 0.66 0.57
73 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.78 0.67 14.20 0.84 0.59 0.60
74 Grenada 0.78 - - 0.72 - -
74 Mexico 0.78 0.61 20.76 0.76 0.57 0.53
74 Saint Kitts and Nevis 0.78 - - - - -
74 Ukraine 0.78 0.73 6.50 0.74 0.77 0.68
78 Antigua and Barbuda 0.78 - - 0.83 - -
79 Peru 0.78 0.63 18.78 0.78 0.61 0.52
79 Thailand 0.78 0.65 16.67 0.81 0.56 0.60
81 Armenia 0.78 0.70 9.67 0.77 0.72 0.62
82 North Macedonia 0.77 0.68 11.81 0.79 0.65 0.62
83 Colombia 0.77 0.60 21.61 0.79 0.56 0.48
84 Brazil 0.76 0.57 24.35 0.77 0.55 0.44
85 China 0.76 0.64 15.67 0.81 0.58 0.56
86 Ecuador 0.76 0.62 18.43 0.78 0.60 0.50
86 Saint Lucia 0.76 0.63 16.87 0.77 0.59 0.55
88 Azerbaijan 0.76 0.68 9.37 0.70 0.67 0.68
88 Dominican Republic 0.76 0.60 21.07 0.69 0.56 0.54
90 Moldova 0.75 0.67 10.30 0.72 0.66 0.64
91 Algeria 0.75 0.60 19.73 0.75 0.45 0.63
92 Lebanon 0.74 - - 0.84 0.57 -
93 Fiji 0.74 - - 0.62 - -
94 Dominica 0.74 - - - - -
95 Maldives 0.74 0.58 20.38 0.85 0.41 0.58
95 Tunisia 0.74 0.60 18.86 0.79 0.46 0.58
97 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 0.74 - - 0.72 - -
97 Suriname 0.74 0.54 25.95 0.69 0.55 0.40
99 Mongolia 0.74 0.63 13.98 0.67 0.65 0.59
100 Botswana 0.74 - - 0.61 0.52 -
101 Jamaica 0.73 0.61 15.87 0.75 0.65 0.47
102 Jordan 0.73 0.62 14.64 0.75 0.56 0.57
103 Paraguay 0.73 0.56 22.77 0.72 0.53 0.45
104 Tonga 0.72 - - 0.70 0.74 -
105 Libya 0.72 - - 0.74 - -
106 Uzbekistan 0.72 - - 0.69 0.72 -
107 Bolivia 0.72 0.55 23.75 0.61 0.57 0.46
107 Indonesia 0.72 0.59 17.73 0.69 0.55 0.55
107 Philippines 0.72 0.59 17.83 0.67 0.61 0.50
110 Belize 0.72 0.55 21.63 0.75 0.58 0.39
111 Samoa 0.72 - - 0.74 0.68 -
111 Turkmenistan 0.72 0.59 17.52 0.57 0.63 0.56
113 Venezuela 0.71 0.59 17.03 0.66 0.64 0.48
114 South Africa 0.71 0.47 31.16 0.55 0.60 0.31
115 Palestine 0.71 0.61 13.40 0.73 0.60 0.52
116 Egypt 0.71 0.50 28.73 0.71 0.38 0.45
117 Marshall Islands 0.70 - - - 0.68 -
117 Vietnam 0.70 0.59 16.54 0.74 0.52 0.53
119 Gabon 0.70 0.54 22.50 0.55 0.50 0.59
120 Kyrgyzstan 0.70 0.63 9.50 0.70 0.71 0.51
121 Morocco 0.69 - - 0.76 - -
122 Guyana 0.68 0.56 18.27 0.62 0.54 0.51
123 Iraq 0.67 0.54 19.43 0.65 0.39 0.62
124 El Salvador 0.67 0.53 21.14 0.72 0.39 0.52
125 Tajikistan 0.67 0.58 12.41 0.65 0.64 0.47
126 Cape Verde 0.66 - - 0.72 0.43 -
127 Guatemala 0.66 0.48 26.93 0.71 0.36 0.43
128 Nicaragua 0.66 0.50 23.16 0.73 0.43 0.42
129 Bhutan 0.65 0.48 26.27 0.66 0.29 0.57
130 Namibia 0.65 0.42 33.57 0.52 0.44 0.32
131 India 0.64 0.48 25.73 0.61 0.34 0.52
132 Honduras 0.63 0.47 24.82 0.74 0.38 0.37
133 Bangladesh 0.63 0.48 23.72 0.67 0.33 0.49
134 Kiribati 0.63 0.52 17.90 0.56 0.54 0.46
135 São Tomé and Principe 0.62 0.52 16.73 0.64 0.46 0.47
136 Federated States of Micronesia 0.62 - - 0.62 - 0.41
137 Lao PDR 0.61 0.46 24.73 0.57 0.33 0.52
138 Eswatini (Kingdom of) 0.61 0.43 29.03 0.46 0.42 0.41
138 Ghana 0.61 0.44 27.81 0.51 0.37 0.45
140 Vanuatu 0.61 - - 0.66 - 0.42
141 Timor-Leste 0.61 0.44 26.73 0.60 0.28 0.50
142 Nepal 0.60 0.45 24.90 0.64 0.31 0.45
143 Kenya 0.60 0.44 26.17 0.56 0.41 0.38
144 Cambodia 0.59 0.48 19.90 0.63 0.35 0.49
145 Equatorial Guinea 0.59 - - 0.39 - -
146 Zambia 0.58 0.40 30.59 0.50 0.44 0.29
147 Myanmar 0.58 - - 0.56 0.34 -
148 Angola 0.58 0.40 31.73 0.43 0.33 0.44
149 Republic of Congo 0.57 0.43 24.90 0.53 0.43 0.35
150 Zimbabwe 0.57 0.44 22.52 0.48 0.50 0.35
151 Solomon Islands 0.57 - - 0.72 - 0.38
151 Syria 0.57 - - 0.71 - -
153 Cameroon 0.56 0.38 33.40 0.40 0.37 0.35
154 Pakistan 0.56 0.38 30.21 0.51 0.23 0.49
155 Papua New Guinea 0.56 0.39 29.55 0.52 0.28 0.40
156 Comoros 0.55 0.30 44.17 0.48 0.25 0.23
157 Mauritania 0.55 0.37 31.80 0.48 0.23 0.45
158 Benin 0.55 0.34 36.87 0.42 0.27 0.36
159 Uganda 0.54 0.40 26.68 0.49 0.38 0.35
160 Rwanda 0.54 0.39 28.40 0.61 0.32 0.29
161 Nigeria 0.54 0.35 35.19 0.34 0.30 0.42
162 Côte d'Ivoire 0.54 0.35 35.32 0.39 0.25 0.43
163 Tanzania 0.53 0.40 24.90 0.52 0.31 0.38
164 Madagascar 0.53 0.39 26.00 0.57 0.34 0.30
165 Lesotho 0.53 0.38 27.41 0.35 0.43 0.37
166 Djibouti 0.52 - - 0.56 - 0.44
167 Togo 0.52 0.35 31.69 0.44 0.32 0.31
168 Senegal 0.51 0.35 31.15 0.58 0.18 0.39
169 Afghanistan 0.51 - - 0.49 0.23 -
170 Haiti 0.51 0.30 39.98 0.46 0.29 0.21
170 Sudan 0.51 0.33 34.30 0.51 0.20 0.37
172 The Gambia 0.50 0.34 31.21 0.46 0.21 0.38
173 Ethiopia 0.48 0.35 27.25 0.54 0.19 0.40
174 Malawi 0.48 0.34 28.63 0.51 0.34 0.24
175 Democratic Republic of the Congo 0.48 0.34 30.17 0.40 0.36 0.26
175 Guinea-Bissau 0.48 0.30 37.37 0.40 0.24 0.28
175 Liberia 0.48 0.32 31.80 0.48 0.24 0.30
178 Guinea 0.48 0.31 33.09 0.44 0.18 0.39
179 Yemen 0.47 0.32 30.87 0.53 0.19 0.33
180 Eritrea 0.46 - - 0.56 - -
181 Mozambique 0.46 0.32 30.67 0.44 0.26 0.27
182 Burkina Faso 0.45 0.32 29.50 0.43 0.19 0.38
182 Sierra Leone 0.45 0.29 34.55 0.33 0.22 0.35
184 Mali 0.43 0.29 32.37 0.38 0.16 0.39
185 Burundi 0.43 0.30 29.63 0.46 0.25 0.24
185 South Sudan 0.43 0.28 36.03 0.37 0.19 0.31
187 Chad 0.40 0.25 37.43 0.31 0.16 0.30
188 Central African Republic 0.40 0.23 41.27 0.31 0.23 0.18
189 Niger 0.39 0.28 27.43 0.45 0.16 0.31

European Results¶

2020 Human Development Index (European Countries). Data Source: UN Human Development Report Office
Pos. Country HDI IHDI Coefficient of human inequality Inequality-adjusted life expectancy index Inequality-adjusted education index Inequality-adjusted income index
2 Norway 0.96 0.90 5.96 0.93 0.91 0.86
2 Ireland 0.96 0.88 7.22 0.93 0.89 0.84
2 Switzerland 0.96 0.89 6.75 0.95 0.88 0.84
4 Iceland 0.95 0.89 5.64 0.95 0.90 0.84
4 Germany 0.95 0.87 7.91 0.91 0.92 0.79
7 Sweden 0.94 0.88 6.52 0.94 0.88 0.83
7 Netherlands 0.94 0.88 6.90 0.93 0.86 0.84
7 Denmark 0.94 0.88 5.96 0.90 0.89 0.85
7 Finland 0.94 0.89 5.29 0.92 0.91 0.83
10 United Kingdom 0.93 0.86 7.95 0.90 0.90 0.77
10 Belgium 0.93 0.86 7.72 0.91 0.83 0.84
13 Austria 0.92 0.86 6.91 0.91 0.84 0.82
13 Liechtenstein 0.92 - - - - -
13 Slovenia 0.92 0.88 4.57 0.92 0.89 0.82
13 Luxembourg 0.92 0.83 9.56 0.93 0.76 0.81
17 Spain 0.90 0.78 13.11 0.95 0.69 0.73
17 France 0.90 0.82 8.93 0.93 0.74 0.80
17 Czech Republic 0.90 0.86 4.42 0.89 0.88 0.82
17 Malta 0.90 0.82 7.93 0.92 0.77 0.79
21 Estonia 0.89 0.83 6.89 0.87 0.86 0.76
21 Italy 0.89 0.78 11.82 0.95 0.71 0.72
21 Greece 0.89 0.79 10.79 0.92 0.76 0.71
23 Lithuania 0.88 0.79 9.98 0.81 0.86 0.71
23 Poland 0.88 0.81 7.57 0.86 0.83 0.75
25 Andorra 0.87 - - - 0.65 -
25 Latvia 0.87 0.78 9.17 0.80 0.86 0.69
27 Portugal 0.86 0.76 11.80 0.92 0.65 0.73
27 Slovakia 0.86 0.81 6.08 0.84 0.81 0.77
29 Hungary 0.85 0.79 7.26 0.84 0.80 0.74
29 Croatia 0.85 0.78 7.88 0.86 0.77 0.73
31 Montenegro 0.83 0.75 9.45 0.84 0.74 0.67
31 Romania 0.83 0.73 11.45 0.81 0.72 0.66
34 Russia 0.82 0.74 10.02 0.75 0.79 0.68
34 Belarus 0.82 0.77 6.30 0.81 0.81 0.70
34 Bulgaria 0.82 0.72 11.33 0.80 0.73 0.64
36 Serbia 0.81 0.70 12.11 0.82 0.72 0.59
37 Albania 0.80 0.71 10.89 0.84 0.65 0.65
38 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.78 0.67 14.20 0.84 0.59 0.60
38 Ukraine 0.78 0.73 6.50 0.74 0.77 0.68
40 North Macedonia 0.77 0.68 11.81 0.79 0.65 0.62
41 Moldova 0.75 0.67 10.30 0.72 0.66 0.64

Aggregations¶

Notes¶

172 from 189 countries score at least 0.5 in the Human Development Index with most low ranking countries located in Africa. Inequality-adjusted Index primarily affects the central and latin american countries and drops even lower the African contintent. Top 10 again consists mostly by european countries. Also countries and territories such as Hong Kong, Singapore, United States and Israel despite their high score, are highly affected by their inequalities.

Greece ranks in 32th place worldwide and 22th place in Europe on Human Development Index. Due to high inequalities (coefficient of 10.79) loses 0.1 on the IHDI. It's also worth noting that is above countries like Italy and Portugal in the inequality-adjusted index.

Index comparison¶

Below are 4 scatterplots presenting the correlation of Human Development Index and Inequality-adjusted Index with the other indices.

Country Regions Population Press Freedom Law CPI HDI IHDI
0 Albania Europe & Central Asia 3639453 56.41 67.0 0.491574 35.0 0.80 0.71
1 Czech Republic Europe & Central Asia 10211904 80.54 91.0 0.728169 54.0 0.90 0.86
2 Austria Europe & Central Asia 8210281 76.74 93.0 0.812422 74.0 0.92 0.86
3 Belgium Europe & Central Asia 10414336 78.86 96.0 0.791767 73.0 0.93 0.86
4 Bulgaria Europe & Central Asia 7204687 59.12 79.0 0.541395 42.0 0.82 0.72

Press freedom and Human development: While most african and southern asian countries ranked consistently low on Human Development Index, the most developed countries appear to have a somewhat positive correlation with Press Freedom.

Freedom in the World and Human development: The most developed countries enjoy better conditions in regard to political rights and civil liberties with a notable positive correlation.

Rule of Law and human development: Among the 4 indices human development seems to be most correlated with how rule of law is experienced and perceived in each country.

Corruption and human development: The most developed countries seem to experience the least corruption.

Also inequality-adjusted human development index, except for the lower scores seems that does not change the correlation with the 4 other indices.

Combine Results¶

PCA is a dimensionality reduction technique, part of unsupervised machine learning. We could create a composite index by simply taking the average of the five indices for each country but that would assume that each index contributes the same to the final score. By applying PCA the new index will be a linear combination of the 5 indices. The coefficients (or loadings) of each index will be calculated in an attempt to maximize the variance in the data (explainability of each dimension).

I will use two classes from the sklearn library:

  • StandardScaler: scaling the original data to prepare them for PCA
  • PCA: the actual Principal Component Analysis transformer
PCA(n_components=1)
In a Jupyter environment, please rerun this cell to show the HTML representation or trust the notebook.
On GitHub, the HTML representation is unable to render, please try loading this page with nbviewer.org.
PCA(n_components=1)
'Explaind variance from one principal component:0.77'
Loading (coefficient) for each index:
{'Press': 0.40845732843607085,
 'Freedom': 0.451039954125099,
 'Law': 0.4903204027127532,
 'CPI': 0.46966586390126036,
 'HDI': 0.4107620352456917}
(-3.355239503249041, 4.256579933962062)

NOTE: If we use PCA's transform method to calculate the new index, the new data will have a range from -3.36 to 4.019. Instead we will use a weighted average with weights being the coefficients calculated from PCA.


Index(['Country', 'Regions', 'Population', 'Press', 'Freedom', 'Law', 'CPI',
       'HDI', 'IHDI', 'Combined Index'],
      dtype='object')
Countries ranked based on a combination of 5 indices
Pos. Country Combined Index Press Freedom Index Freedom in the World Index Rule of Law Index Corruption Perceptions Index Human Development Index
1 Norway 92.54 92.65 100.00 0.90 85.00 0.96
2 Denmark 91.77 90.27 97.00 0.90 88.00 0.94
3 Finland 91.56 88.42 100.00 0.88 88.00 0.94
4 Sweden 90.65 88.84 100.00 0.86 85.00 0.94
5 New Zealand 89.25 83.54 99.00 0.83 88.00 0.93
6 Germany 86.84 82.04 94.00 0.84 80.00 0.95
7 Ireland 86.83 88.30 97.00 0.81 74.00 0.96
8 Netherlands 86.79 77.93 97.00 0.83 82.00 0.94
9 Luxembourg 86.43 79.81 97.00 0.83 81.00 0.92
10 Canada 85.08 81.74 98.00 0.80 74.00 0.93
11 Estonia 84.99 88.83 94.00 0.81 74.00 0.89
12 United Kingdom 84.04 78.71 93.00 0.79 78.00 0.93
13 Belgium 83.77 78.86 96.00 0.79 73.00 0.93
14 Austria 83.25 76.74 93.00 0.81 74.00 0.92
15 Australia 82.85 73.77 95.00 0.79 73.00 0.94
16 Japan 80.80 64.37 96.00 0.79 73.00 0.92
17 France 79.76 78.53 89.00 0.72 71.00 0.90
18 Portugal 79.44 87.07 95.00 0.70 62.00 0.86
19 Lithuania 78.99 84.14 89.00 0.75 61.00 0.88
20 Uruguay 78.98 72.03 97.00 0.71 73.00 0.82
21 Spain 77.70 76.71 90.00 0.73 61.00 0.90
22 Czech Republic 77.11 80.54 91.00 0.73 54.00 0.90
23 United States 76.62 72.74 83.00 0.69 67.00 0.93
24 Latvia 76.45 79.17 88.00 0.71 59.00 0.87
25 South Korea 76.16 72.11 83.00 0.74 62.00 0.92
26 Costa Rica 76.16 85.92 91.00 0.68 58.00 0.81
27 Slovenia 74.71 68.54 90.00 0.68 57.00 0.92
28 Chile 74.47 60.61 94.00 0.66 67.00 0.85
29 Slovakia 73.93 78.37 90.00 0.66 52.00 0.86
30 Cyprus 73.46 65.97 93.00 0.68 53.00 0.89
31 Italy 73.36 68.16 90.00 0.66 56.00 0.89
32 Malta 72.19 61.55 89.00 0.68 54.00 0.90
33 Poland 70.50 65.64 81.00 0.64 56.00 0.88
34 Singapore 69.99 44.23 47.00 0.78 85.00 0.94
35 Croatia 69.01 70.42 85.00 0.61 47.00 0.85
36 Romania 67.88 68.46 83.00 0.63 45.00 0.83
37 Greece 67.83 55.52 87.00 0.61 49.00 0.89
38 Argentina 66.89 77.28 84.00 0.56 38.00 0.84
39 Jamaica 66.71 83.35 80.00 0.57 44.00 0.73
40 Namibia 66.44 81.84 77.00 0.62 49.00 0.65
41 Hong Kong 66.27 41.64 43.00 0.75 76.00 0.95
42 Trinidad and Tobago 66.11 78.68 82.00 0.53 41.00 0.80
43 South Africa 65.00 75.56 79.00 0.58 44.00 0.71
44 Botswana 63.48 58.49 72.00 0.59 55.00 0.74
45 Bulgaria 62.65 59.12 79.00 0.54 42.00 0.82
46 Georgia 62.40 59.30 58.00 0.61 55.00 0.81
47 Panama 62.36 62.78 83.00 0.52 36.00 0.82
48 Suriname 61.25 68.95 79.00 0.49 39.00 0.74
49 Hungary 61.06 59.80 69.00 0.52 43.00 0.85
50 Ghana 60.99 67.43 80.00 0.55 43.00 0.61
51 Mongolia 60.79 59.17 84.00 0.54 35.00 0.74
52 Guyana 60.48 76.41 73.00 0.50 39.00 0.68
53 North Macedonia 60.16 68.44 67.00 0.53 39.00 0.77
54 Dominican Republic 58.66 76.90 68.00 0.48 30.00 0.76
55 Moldova 58.64 73.47 62.00 0.51 36.00 0.75
56 Peru 58.57 61.75 72.00 0.49 36.00 0.78
57 Ecuador 58.43 64.61 71.00 0.48 36.00 0.76
58 Tunisia 58.17 58.49 64.00 0.53 44.00 0.74
59 Brazil 57.90 55.36 73.00 0.50 38.00 0.76
60 Serbia 57.58 61.51 62.00 0.49 38.00 0.81
61 Malaysia 57.22 51.55 50.00 0.57 48.00 0.81
62 Albania 56.79 56.41 67.00 0.49 35.00 0.80
63 United Arab Emirates 56.56 44.46 17.00 0.64 69.00 0.89
64 Senegal 55.93 63.07 68.00 0.55 43.00 0.51
65 Bosnia and Herzegovina 55.82 65.64 53.00 0.52 35.00 0.78
66 Ukraine 54.86 55.76 61.00 0.51 32.00 0.78
67 Paraguay 54.06 58.36 65.00 0.48 30.00 0.73
68 Colombia 53.87 42.43 64.00 0.49 39.00 0.77
69 Indonesia 53.71 49.27 59.00 0.52 38.00 0.72
70 Nepal 52.43 62.67 57.00 0.52 33.00 0.60
71 Burkina Faso 52.33 73.12 53.00 0.50 42.00 0.45
72 Malawi 52.31 61.40 66.00 0.52 35.00 0.48
73 Sri Lanka 52.04 42.13 55.00 0.50 37.00 0.78
74 India 52.04 41.00 66.00 0.50 40.00 0.64
75 El Salvador 51.83 54.09 59.00 0.48 34.00 0.67
76 Jordan 51.44 48.66 33.00 0.55 49.00 0.73
77 Sierra Leone 51.35 71.03 65.00 0.44 34.00 0.45
78 Mexico 51.15 47.57 60.00 0.43 31.00 0.78
79 Côte d'Ivoire 50.90 74.46 49.00 0.45 36.00 0.54
80 Benin 50.44 48.39 59.00 0.49 42.00 0.55
81 Bolivia 50.14 47.58 66.00 0.39 30.00 0.72
82 The Gambia 49.91 69.25 47.00 0.49 37.00 0.50
83 Philippines 49.13 41.84 55.00 0.46 33.00 0.72
84 Kenya 48.67 64.59 48.00 0.44 30.00 0.60
85 Liberia 48.28 62.77 60.00 0.44 29.00 0.48
86 Kazakhstan 47.93 48.28 23.00 0.52 37.00 0.82
87 Zambia 47.84 55.40 51.00 0.44 33.00 0.58
88 Madagascar 47.82 58.02 61.00 0.44 26.00 0.53
89 Thailand 47.69 50.15 29.00 0.50 35.00 0.78
90 Rwanda 47.47 45.18 22.00 0.62 53.00 0.54
91 Morocco 47.43 45.42 37.00 0.49 39.00 0.69
92 Algeria 46.39 45.53 32.00 0.49 33.00 0.75
93 Turkey 46.33 41.25 32.00 0.42 38.00 0.82
94 Guatemala 46.26 47.94 51.00 0.44 25.00 0.66
95 Niger 46.14 67.80 51.00 0.44 31.00 0.39
96 Kyrgyzstan 46.06 64.25 27.00 0.47 27.00 0.70
97 Lebanon 45.61 46.58 42.00 0.45 24.00 0.74
98 Togo 44.85 57.17 42.00 0.45 30.00 0.52
99 Tanzania 43.92 48.28 34.00 0.47 39.00 0.53
100 Belarus 43.07 39.62 8.00 0.48 41.00 0.82
101 Angola 42.73 57.17 30.00 0.43 29.00 0.58
102 Russia 42.32 38.82 19.00 0.46 29.00 0.82
103 Mauritania 41.77 58.10 35.00 0.36 28.00 0.55
104 Nigeria 41.33 46.79 43.00 0.41 24.00 0.54
105 Guinea 41.02 59.82 34.00 0.41 25.00 0.48
106 Honduras 40.94 34.61 47.00 0.39 23.00 0.63
107 Mozambique 40.61 49.89 43.00 0.40 26.00 0.46
108 Uzbekistan 40.55 45.74 11.00 0.49 28.00 0.72
109 Vietnam 40.48 26.11 19.00 0.49 39.00 0.70
110 Bangladesh 40.40 36.63 39.00 0.40 26.00 0.63
111 Haiti 40.38 64.55 33.00 0.38 20.00 0.51
112 China 40.23 25.17 9.00 0.47 45.00 0.76
113 Ethiopia 39.91 50.53 23.00 0.41 39.00 0.48
114 Mali 39.85 54.48 32.00 0.43 29.00 0.43
115 Uganda 39.65 46.35 34.00 0.39 27.00 0.54
116 Pakistan 39.15 37.99 37.00 0.39 28.00 0.56
117 Republic of Congo 38.29 58.64 17.00 0.42 21.00 0.57
118 Zimbabwe 37.88 44.94 28.00 0.39 23.00 0.57
119 Egypt 36.85 30.23 18.00 0.35 33.00 0.71
120 Nicaragua 36.15 37.09 23.00 0.38 20.00 0.66
121 Iran 35.89 23.22 14.00 0.42 25.00 0.78
122 Cameroon 35.76 49.10 15.00 0.35 27.00 0.56
123 Cambodia 35.52 43.48 24.00 0.32 23.00 0.59
124 Democratic Republic of the Congo 33.02 47.66 19.00 0.35 19.00 0.48
125 Sudan 32.46 40.96 10.00 0.42 20.00 0.51
126 Myanmar 31.61 25.03 9.00 0.39 28.00 0.58
127 Venezuela 31.60 37.78 14.00 0.27 14.00 0.71
128 Afghanistan 29.55 38.27 10.00 0.35 16.00 0.51

Final Notes¶

The same trends that we observed in individual indices also appear in the combined index. Northern and West European countries are in the top of the rank and consistently higher than countries in south and each Europe. Other countries that standout for their good score are Canada and United States in the north America, Costa Rica in Central America, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina and French Guiana in South America, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand in Asia and Oceania. Unfortunately the majority of countries in Africa and Asia receive a low score.

Out of the 128 countries rated on all 5 indicators, the last five are Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Venezuela.


Notebook Created on June 2022 by Mysiloglou Dimitrios